The Lost Shot
by ChroniclerOfFantasies
Summary: My name is Arc Hunter. Because of a screw up by my mother, I have to find the arrow that killed my namesake. If I don't do it by the end of the month, the king of the gods is going to roast me with a nice zap from one of his lightning bolts, but with the card throwing son of the Goddess of Luck and a shield using Nymph that's forced to travel everywhere I go, I'm sure I'll make it!
1. My Foster Father is the Boogie Man

Hi my name is Arc, Arc Hunter. My full name is Achilles Drakonian Hunter. Now that that's out of the way, let me first start by telling you that if anything you read feels true or familiar shut this book now and go learn some sword fighting or something. You're inevitably screwed so you might as well be prepared! Haha, but seriously, go. Now.

If you think this is a work of fiction you're wrong! Unless this is all a dream… in which case none of this is real and one of us is in a coma… huh. Weird thought.

Well let's see… um what were we talking about? Oh yeah! See I live a slightly different life than most people. I've never met my father or mother. I was left in a police station with a little note that said my father was dead and told them my name. Other than that it didn't mention anything at all. Just… left me there.

I ended up spending my whole life in foster care. Some parents were better than others but for the most part I ended up with pretty nice folks. I guess I got lucky there. Anyways, right then I was with just this one guy… most of the time. Yeah I ran away a lot. It's not a big deal. I came home… eventually! But seriously you probably shouldn't do that. It just happens to work for me.

I wouldn't say I'm a trouble maker. I don't go out of my way to bad things. But at the same time I don't NOT do them either. If the situation arises that doing something bad might be a little fun, then why not? I only have one life to live and it was going to be dull and boring if I just did as my fourteen year old self was told. At least, that's what I thought. Until this past summer…

As always I was relaxing in central park. This was the first time I had ever been in a city as huge as New York, most of the time I was sent to very rural areas with lots of wilderness in the general vicinity. Having come to a big city I was really uncomfortable in the tiny cramped apartments and busy streets, so after a few days I decided to bail.

Yes I know I'm a horrible role model. But that's not the point. See I thought that day would be like any other: I'd sit in a tree, relax, watch the people passing by, then go home and eat whatever my foster parents had left out for me. Unfortunately today I accidentally fell out of that very tree, and of course with my luck there's good old Officer Roger.

Every time I came to a new home, I somehow always managed to find that one police officer who didn't tolerate anything. And somehow they'd always catch me in the wrong place at the wrong time. Hell they'd normally just catch me in general. Especially Officer Roger. Looking at him you'd never be able to figure out why he's allowed to be a cop. He limps everywhere he goes and half the time the man's on crutches, but if he's pursuing a culprit it's a whole different story. The minute he has to chase someone down he drops those crutches and takes off with a speed that puts Olympic runners to shame. It's gotten to the point I don't even try to run away from him now.

"Arc, what are you doing? You aren't up to no good again are you?"

"No sir," I said. "I'm just enjoying a little almost fresh air." I meant it too. New York City may be the city of dreams, but it sure doesn't smell like it. The air here is so think and heavy with toxic smog I thought I was going to die just from breathing when I first got here. I even had to wear a miniature gas mask. But here in central park it wasn't nearly as bad. It was like the trees here purified the air. It wasn't quite the fresh air I was used to, but it was certainly much better than the rest of that colorless metal and cement wasteland.

"You know you've been saying that a lot these past couple of days. When was the last time you were home?"

"Why just this morning officer."

"Yeah yeah I bet you did. Come one let's get you home."

"But Officer Roger I swear I'm telling the truth! Hey come on!" It was pointless, once Roger had made his mind up about something there was nothing I could do. Luckily for me my few seconds of struggling bought me enough time for some random rescuer to help me out… I thought.

"It's true officer, he really was."

"Wha?" There he was, my savior. Rick Hannigan, my current foster father. Oh how I have come to love this man. He doesn't care what I do or why I do it, his only request is I come home every night and eat at least once. The best foster parent I could ask for. He knows I'll be gone soon enough anyways, so why make me adhere to some strict policy full of nonsense? Nope, he just lets me enjoy my life.

Officer Roger didn't like him for that, but at the same time there was nothing he could do about it. Hehe, checkmate Roger. The old man is here to pick me up.

"I'll take him from here officer." Roger gave out a small grumble. He hated being cornered like this but I absolutely loved it.

"Fine, looks like your off the hook Arc… for now." With that he hobbled off to wherever it is that Roger goes.

"Haha, thanks Rick."

"No problem but, Arc, I have to talk to you about something."

"Yeah sure what is it?"

"I'm afraid… it's time for you to go."

I stopped dead in my tracks. It was time for me to leave Rick already? Had two months really gone by that fast? No, this couldn't be happening. Up to that point Rick had been the closest I had ever come to having a friend… to having a family. Now I suddenly had to leave? I didn't want to go… not now. Not yet!

"But rick it's still June! I'm not supposed to leave until July first!"

"Calm down, that's not what I mean. It's time for you to leave this Earth. You should've never been born in the first place. I'm going to eat you now before you can get to that god forsaken camp and become a pain in anybody's ass!"

"… what?"

And just like that I watched my foster fathers skin peel off and fall to the ground as an incredibly strange creature rose out of the bits and pieces of skin. He was a monster that stood about ten feet tall, a whole four feet above my height. He had bat like wings colored a slight gray, they were darker than my white spiky hair but still pretty close. His skin was black except for a big red 'M' on the center of his chest. His arms and legs ended in claws and talons and his teeth were long and razor sharp.

Now I know, I'm not the smartest cookie in the jar. In fact, I'm pretty sure I never made it into the jar to begin with, but even for me my next moment was, well, it was just pathetic. You see I should have hightailed it out of there. I mean, he had just said it was time for me to leave this earth and that I was a problem he was going to take care of. Obviously he was about to kill me. But even knowing that I, out of all the things I could have said, and all the things I could have done, stood there, looked at him and said "Coooooooooooooool. Big monster guy." And then I blacked out.

Sleep was never really my friend. Resting was, being lazy was, but sleep? Not so much. I always saw the weirdest things in my dreams. Sometimes I dreamt of a group of people who hunted monsters. Other times I saw a camp filled with marble pillars and such. It looked more like ancient Rome or Greece than it did a camp. But those shirts were unmistakable.

The worst part was whenever I had dreams of _her_. Each time I'd wake up with tears in my eyes as I remembered the times we spent together so long ago. The only upside to those dreams was that they almost always meant I was going to have a good day. It felt like I was being blessed by god.

This time though, my dreams had nothing to do with either of those. Instead I was having a dream that I was in Rome. Or maybe Greece? I couldn't tell all of that stuff always looked the same to me. Anyways there were a bunch of soldiers standing in front of this massive stone wall. Three warriors were standing in front of the rest of the soldiers.

The one on the far left wore a combination of bronze and green. He was tall, at least six in a half feet if not taller, with huge muscles and a rugged face. His skin was darker than the other and he wore a huge lions skin starting from his head and going down his back, his head placed fashionably inside what was once the lions mouth. It was tied around his neck so the lions head could be taken on and off like a hood. His left hand held a huge shield, at least two to three times the size of everyone else's and his right hand held an equally as large spear.

The man on the right looked older, was about the size of the rest of the rest of his soldier, perhaps slightly taller, and carried only a single short sword. His head was bald and he stood with his arms crossed. He also wore blue instead of green. Several maps hung around his waist and a satchel that seemed to have a quill sticking out of the top jingled like coins whenever he moved, which wasn't much. He seemed extremely aware of his surroundings. He wasn't paranoid, just watching closely, as though he was analyzing everything.

Finally there was the man in the middle. He was shorter than the other two and wore armor of bronze, white and gold, though the way he looked suggested he didn't really need it. He had a longsword strapped to his hip and a bow on his back, though it didn't look like it was used very often. He also had a bronze full helm on, but again, it looked more like it was for show than anything else.

The man on the left turned his head to the one in the middle. "Are you sure about this Achilles? You know the gods have grown wary of how many of their children you have killed."

Then I understood why the armor was for show. If that was Achilles, then that means he was invincible anyways except for his heel. Which means all of these guys were greeks and if they're standing outside of a big wall…

"The Trojans are powerful enemies" said the guy on the right. "And with such little information I don't think my plan will be very effective."

"I thank you for your concern," said Achilles. "But we must do this whether we want to or not. I'm just glad to have the two of you at my side, Ajax, Odysseus. You are my best friends and greatest comrades."

"Yes, but what about the one behind us? Is he friend… or foe?" said Ajax, and he slowly turned around looking straight at me. Odysseus and Achilles followed his lead. At first I just waited for the dream to progress, but nothing happened. Then Achilles spoke.

"He seems not to know that we're aware of his presence."

I took a step back. Could they see me?

"By the looks of it," said Odysseus, "I'd wager he hasn't even been brought to camp yet. In fact look closer, see his clothes? I'd say this brother of ours is from another time all together. Tell us boy, what's your name?"

I looked at them dumbfounded. They really COULD see me! "A-Arc. Arc Hunter. The Arc is short for Achilles."

Ajax gave out a boisterous laugh. "Ah I see! Achilles! Congratulations my boy, your name has gone down in history!" Ajax gave Achilles a slap to the back. Arc winced, that kind of hit could knock someone out cold. But Achilles just stumbled a bit and stood up, an awkward grin on his face. Then Odysseus spoke again.

"Tell me, Arc, what time are you from?" Arc hesitated. The calendar he knew and the one they knew had to be different. After all, nobody in their time would call it the year before zero. So he explained as best he could.

"Well, I'm not sure what it would be for you, but for me it's two thousand thirteen. But we have a different calendar than you guys. If you want to know how long it's been since you guys died though, I'd say, three thousand years. And Achilles isn't the only famous one. Plenty of people know the stories of the Trojan war. Ajax, Paris, Helen, Odysseus, Achilles, we all have to study about you in our history and literature classes at some point or another."

Hearing that Ajax got excited and started to dance around. Then I again, I guess hearing that you get to be remembered for thousands of years after your death is enough to put anybody in a good mood. Odysseus though just smiled, like he had already accepted that possibility as fact. But not in a smug way, more like _cool I was right, now to the task at hand._

"Tell me then, will we win this battle? After today will the war be over?" Now this was a question I could give a straight, albeit sad answer to.

"No. Well, I don't know which battle this is. Depending you might win the battle, but not the war. Not if history goes as it should."

"How do you know?" He asked. If I had really travelled back in time I'd be nervous about telling him. You know, affecting the future and all. But since it was a dream, I didn't really care.

"Because of those two. Achilles and Ajax are still alive. Achilles is supposed to die gloriously in battle by a god assisted arrow, and Ajax committed suicide. I can't remember why though, I think it had to do with not getting Achilles armor or something, but I also think it was deeper than that.

I watched as the smiles disappeared off of Achilles and Ajax's faces. I could understand how being told you're going to die would put you in a bad mood. Odysseus looked worried as well, he even seemed to age several years in a few seconds.

"I'm sorry," I said. Stupid, apologizing to a dream. "I didn't mean to."

Achilles held up his hand. "Child who bears my name, do not fret. We are the ones who asked the question. Do not get us wrong, you have done us a great service. Knowing how one will die makes death much easier. You've done Ajax and I a great service. I thank you."

I didn't really see how that could be a good service, but I accepted his thanks nonetheless.

"And as much as we'd like to talk to you longer," said Ajax. "It seems you're in danger yourself. You need to wake up boy. Quickly."

Then the scene changed and I was standing in dank, stone prison cell. I looked around and saw a beautiful woman sitting in the corner looking at a dagger. She looked up at me and smiled.

"Helen?" I asked.

Her smile grew even larger as tears rolled down her eyes. I don't like seeing girls cry so I walked over to her. I tried to put my hand on her shoulder but went straight through. She closed her eyes and giggled at my clumsiness while my face got all red.

"Thanks for trying." She said. And I nodded my head kind of awkwardly. "Your Arc Hunter right? I saw you through the knife. You're from the future right? Might I ask what happens to me as well?"

I bit my lip. This was the hardest question so far. "Well, I don't know. Lots of different sources say lots of different things. Personally I believe you just disappeared. It's the only reasonable explanation, to me at least."

She put her head down. Yet another disappointed look caused by me. I don't like making people feel bad.

Just then her face perked up a little. She looked up, her lips in a small smile. "Well then, Achilles Hunter. Whatever I do I shall find a way to let you know what happened. Look out in the annals of history for my message. I'm sure you will know it when you see it."

"All right, I will. Thanks, Helen."


	2. My Father Chases A Cop Car

I don't remember what happened after that. All I know is about a few hours later I woke up in the passenger seat of some guys car. Sad to say I freaked out a little. That's right, that's the kind of guy I am. Get cornered by a monster that wants to kill you and stare at it while you call it cool, wake up in an unfamiliar car with no idea how you got there and have a mental breakdown. Makes perfect sense right?

Well anyways when I finally got my wits about me, (Haha, wits. I like that word. Wit wit wit wit wit…) I took a look around and noticed I was in the passenger side seat of a cop car.

I didn't have any cuffs on so I wasn't under arrest. Instead I looked at the driver seat. Had to be someone operating the care right? Well yeah only half right. It was a someone, but what I was concerned with was the something the someone was. "Officer Roger… you're a… a…"

"Don't say goat."

Since he said that my only reasonable course of action was to bleat like one. I don't think he was very appreciative of that but oh well. "Okay, so you're a goat man. Sounds about right. And if you're a goat man then that means that what I just saw was-"

"That was Mormo. He's an ancient monster that eats misbehaving children." He shot me an evil glare. "Course just like any monster if he smells a Demigod he's going to come after him."

"So which am I? One of these demigod's or a misbehaving kid?"

"You're both!"

"Fair enough. So I'm a demigod? Half human, half god. You mind telling me which gods we're talking about here?" Mind you I've never been a very religious person. I've been is so many different foster homes with so many different beliefs I stopped trying to figure out which one was right. As a result I guess I ended up with a pretty open mind.

"Greek."

"The GREEK gods? Like Zeus, and Poseidon and Hades? That's awesome!"

"Seriously? You're glad about that? You realize there are dangerous monsters and stuff talked about all the time in those old stories right?"

Okay I'll admit I was a bit more freaked than I was letting on, but in my defense I was a bit of a videogame junky. I loved playing games that involved magic and monsters and swords and stuff. I guess I'd always been hoping for this and now that it was actually happening I was more excited than I was scared. "Yeah I am honestly. Hey how'd we get away from this Moron guy?"

"It's Mormo, and we… well look behind us."

So I did. Now I'd like to say that I took the sight well but I didn't. I screamed. Mormo was following us, flying down the highway at top speed and he was gaining on us. A few more minutes and he'd catch up completely.

I spun back around into the front seat. "Isn't there anything we can do?!" I asked.

"I don't suppose you know how to use a bow do you?"

"Not at all."

"Well now's as good a time as any to learn. There's one in the backseat, try using it. Who knows, maybe you're a child of Apollo and you're really good at this."

I doubted that. Still though, didn't hurt to give it a try. I picked up the quiver and slung it around my waist then picked up the bow. For some reason the car had a skylight so I popped the top off and stood up. At the sight of me Mormo's rapid movements suddenly became more careful. He wasn't any slower, but he wasn't taking any chances. Guess he didn't know I didn't know how to use a bow.

Anyways I pulled an arrow out of the quiver and notched it. I felt weird all of a sudden. The bow felt light in my hand, but steady at the same time. The world slowed around me as I pulled the string back. Everything was so quiet. I knew the wind was whipping past me but I couldn't hear it or feel it. I just knew that the draft from the car would help my arrow to fly straight. It felt so natural, so normal, to hold a bow at an enemy. To have a target in my sight ready to be brought down. I could see all of his movements. I could see his how his muscles would flex and contract with each flap of his wings, how his legs would move ever so slightly to adjust his position as he flew against the wind. I could see how his arms cut through the air to make him more aerodynamic as he flew. He couldn't even breathe without me figuring out the intervals between each breath. He was my target, I knew everything about him, and he was going down.

I pulled the bow fully back and let go with a twang! The arrow soared through the air, ripping the wind. Unfortunately he dodged causing him to lose some ground. I didn't know why at the time but that had seriously pissed me off. It was bothering me I'd have to use a second shot to take down a target. None the less I grabbed another arrow.

"I thought you said you hadn't used a bow before?"

"I haven't."

"Really? Yup it's official then. Son of Apollo, definitely son of Apollo."

At that moment I didn't really care whose son I was. I had just missed a shot on a target and I was mad. I calmed my body down, tranced out even more than before, and let another loose. He dodged that one too but not completely. I could see a little bit of blood pouring from his cheek. I grazed him. I was closer but he still wasn't dead. I decided to make this next shot special. This time he WAS going down. I refused to let a target escape. I grabbed three arrows and notched them all. I watched his movement, the beat of his wings, the timing of his breaths, the direction he moved. I watched until I found the big pattern that connected them all then looked for a perfect opening. It took me some time but I found it, a short pause between breaths as he'd adjust his position to fly upwards a bit while his wings were down. If I stroke then, he'd be in the middle of moving and wouldn't be able to use his wings to fly up fast and dodge nor would he be able to take a big gulp of air to lighten his body and slow down his pace to buy himself enough time roll out of the way. Waiting patiently I watched for the next opening. When it came I pulled my bow string just a little bit further and released. One, two, three shots hit him square in the forehead. I stood there with a triumphant smile on my face as I watched Moron or whatever his name was dissolve into a pile of golden dust.

"Who- whoa! You… you just beat Mormo! No hero has EVER killed him!"

I sat back down in the seat and looked at the old goat. "Well there's a first time for everything right?" I layed back a bit, surprisingly winded. I didn't know why but I was a lot more tired than I should've been.

"Hey, hey kid. You didn't look directly into Mormo's eyes did you?"

Actually I hadn't given it any thought, but once he brought it up I realized yeah, a pretty good portion of the time I WAS staring at his eyes. "Yeah I did actually. In fact there were times I felt like I had too."

I heard the car speed up. "Oh no, oh no, this is not good. This is not good at all. We need to get you to camp and fast!"

"Why? What-" I never got to finish my sentence, I suddenly started feeling really dizzy and couldn't breathe. My vision was blurring more and more until I just couldn't see and my limbs felt like they were on fire. I don't remember what happened very well. I didn't go unconscious right away. I remember I was screaming in pain for a while. I remember we drove up to some weird hill with a dying tree where some big horse came rushing up to us. It looked like Officer Roger was talking to the horse, he was half goat so I guessed he could have. After that the horse guy rushed off and came back with this blonde haired glasses chick and some kid, probably a year younger than me, who had brown hair. They were both wearing some weird orange shirt. I hated orange, too flamboyant. I preferred natural colors. Anyways they both shoved something into my mouth. Some kind of thick liquid that tasted like some kind of sweet I can't remember having. Like it was something I ate when I was very very little. After that the pain was too much and I finally passed out.


	3. Steak Chocolate Saves My Life

I woke up later in some weird room. All I could do was watch a ceiling fan go round and round and round… Someone was near me so I sat up to take a look. I really regretted it haha! My body felt like it had just been through a few rounds in a kickboxing competition… and they were all really one sided fights too! So I ended up recoiling in screaming pain, not that I could scream. Yeah, the pain was that bad.

In the corner of my eye I saw the person near me shoot up out of their seat and run out of the room. After that walks in Officer Roger spouting his full on goaty awesomeness and the horse he was talking to before. Well… it wasn't a horse. Now that I had a good look it was actually a centaur. White fur with an old gray but shining mane and the body of some really ripped old guy. Honestly at the time I was in so much pain the only thought I could come up with was _Even a horse man has better abs than I do!_

I saw his lips moving but it took me a few seconds to register who he was talking too, which was me of course. "Child, child. Can you hear me? Do you understand what I am saying?"

Talking was hard so it took me a minute to form the words, but eventually I managed to squeak out "I hear you horse guy."

"Good," He said. "Tell me do you know where you are?" I gave it a little bit of thought. Well, I was a child of a god or goddess so I had to be in a place where the gods kept their children. Made sense, but where was that? A place like that wasn't mentioned in the old stories and legends. Nor was I on Olympus, something like that would require me doing some really crazy task. So I just took the best guess I could come up with at the time.

"The boarding school for Demigods?" Apparently I said something funny as horse man and Roger started laughing hysterically. Either I had hit the mark or I was way off. Either way I didn't care. I just wanted some painkiller… maybe with some painkillers on the side and a diet painkiller to drink.

"Haha! In all these centuries of training you young heroes that is the closest anyone has ever come to guessing it right without actually knowing! The boarding school for demigods! Ha! But honestly though, you are only half right. This is a school of sorts though it's more like summer camp. This is the place where half-bloods such as yourself learn how to fight off monsters and are taught the different techniques of war. I am-"

"Chiron, the centaur who trains the children of the gods. Yeah I know all about you from the old stories. You could say I'm a bit of a history nut, and Officer Roger you're a satyr right?"

"Ha, looks like we got ourselves a smart one here!" said Roger. "Maybe you're a child of Athena!"

Of all the gods and goddesses the greeks had, Athena was the one I was SURE I wasn't the child of. Honestly I had to agree with what he had said before, the son of Apollo was definitely what I was. No doubt about it. The way I felt when I held that bow, like I was king of everything and nothing could touch me, like the world was my domain and all things in it belonged to me, that was my calling. My purpose. I was a son of the god Apollo. But… I just had one question. "How do we know for sure whose kid I am?"

Apparently I just asked a touchy question because they went from _haha yay new camper _to _ah great he just had to go there…_ "Well," Chiron said, "you see the only way to know for sure whose child you are is to have the god or goddess themselves actually claim you."

"And when's that?"

"Well…" said Chiron.

"No one knows." Interrupted Roger. "Some children never get picked, others get claimed the minute they pass the border into this place. It all depends."

"Let me guess, if I do something amazing I'll get claimed? It's like a 'Oh did you see that? That's my kid!' kind of thing?"

"That's about right." Said Chiron.

"And if I just live life normally I'll never be claimed?"

"Well…"

"Great…" I said turning my head back to the ceiling. Just what I needed to hear, that even though I was in the place of at least one of my parents I still wasn't going to be able to find out their identity for a while. But there was nothing I could do and the pain was mind numbing. I didn't think I was going to get up for a while. Chiron clopped over to me. (Haha clopped. You know… because he's a horse man? No? Okay… moving on then.) "Tell me how are you feeling?"

"Like I just went ten rounds with a monster, wait…"

"Haha, I guess you would. No hero has ever defeated Mormo and for good reason. He's a monster that preys on children so he's good at messing with people's minds. If you look at him directly in the eyes, he can poison your very soul. That poison manifests itself on the outside, deteriorating your health until you eventually die. You're the third hero to ever face him and live and the first to slay him. The only reason you probably haven't been claimed yet is due to the fact you weren't actually here in camp when you finished the deed. Your body is still recovering though so I suggest you take it easy for a few days. Now Roger and I have to go, he has another assignment to get to and I have an archery class to teach in twenty minutes. I've asked another camper here to get you something called ambrosia. It will aid in your recovery. His name is Percy and, ah here he is."

A boy walked through the door carrying a small rag in his right hand. He looked about a year younger than me, though you'd never be able to tell since I'm almost six foot tall at the age of fourteen. He had chestnut brown hair and was wearing an orange t-shirt that said Camp Half-Blood in big black letters. "I'm here with the ambrosia Chiron. Is that the new camper?"

"Yes, please get it to him right away. Roger and I are off. Farewell Mr. Jackson."

"Percy huh? That wouldn't happen to be short for Perseus would it?"

"Actually yeah it is. How'd you guess?"

"It's the same for me. Everyone calls me Arc, but my real name is Achilles. Do all of us have weird names like that?"

"Haha no, just me and you. Everyone else has normal names. Guess our parents just thought it was funny."

"Uh yeah actually, I'm an orphan. I've never met my parents, godly or otherwise."

This Percy guy got a kind of sad look on his face. I don't really like it when people get all crestfallen about me being an orphan and I think he noticed that because that pitying look he was giving me changed to a bright smile. I liked this kid. "So Percy," I said. "What's this miracle medicine you've got for me?"

"Oh yeah, right. Here." He unfurled the little gray rag he was carrying in his right hand and gave me four small pieces of chocolate.

"Chocolate," I said. "That's your super medicine?"

"Actually it's ambrosia, the food of the gods. It just looks like chocolate."

"Alright whatever just give it here. I'll take anything to ease this pain." I reached my hand out and took one of the little squares. Biting into it I recoiled at the taste. I thought it would taste like chocolate, instead it tasted like venison steak, all greasy and fresh off the skillet, covered in thick gravy with just the right spices to give it that extra zing. It wasn't just any venison steak either, it was HER venison steak. The kind I hadn't had in years. I couldn't help doing anything else… I cried. Right then and there. I just cried.

"Hey whoa! Are you okay?" Through the tears and memories I couldn't do anything but nod my head. I was so sad and so happy at the same time. This camp had magic like this? Where I could eat food but still taste something as good as that? Could I eat any of her old meals regardless of what it is? Could I bite into a carrot and eat her freshly cooked salmon? Could an apple give my tastebuds the same pleasure as eating her spit cooked pork? If this was a dream, I didn't want to wake up.

"It's nothing Percy it's just, this tastes a lot like one of my former foster mothers dishes. She kept me for a full year before I had to leave. She was the best of all my foster parents and the only one I ever actually bothered to call mom… I miss her."

"Well, I can't give her back to you, but here in the camp you can have her cooking whenever you want. The plates pop up with whatever kind of food you please at the pavilion. You just think it and boom, there's your food."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, oh and I was told that your stepdad was a monster in disguise? This may be called a summer camp, but if you want you can stay here year round. Or in other words,"

"You mean I can live here?!"

"Well yeah." I cried even harder. Not only could I have my mom's home cooking, I also had a home to go with it. I had a place to stay, a permanent one. No more moving, no more running away, no more sad goodbyes.

I was finally home.

Percy stood in the doorway for a few minutes while I got my emotions sorted out. He just kept looking at me with this big smile, like he was glad I was so happy. Guys like him, I really liked. They're the ones that are perfectly happy so long as their friends are too.

Eventually I straightened out and ate the rest of the ambrosia. (Each piece tasting like a different one of my mom's meals.) After that he showed me around the camp grounds. I wasn't very surprised to see so many Greek styled things everywhere. And by so many I mean everything. From buildings to food to writing. Everything was ancient Greek. I loved it. He explained how the cabins were separated. Apparently each one was based on who your godly parent was. If you were the son of Hephaestus you stayed in a cabin with all your half brothers and sisters. If you were a child of Aphrodite you stayed in that cabin. Apparently I'd be staying in cabin number eleven for now. That was the cabin of Hermes, the god of thieves, messages, and travelers. Basically anyone who hadn't been claimed, was visiting, or was the child of a minor god stayed there. I admit I wasn't too keen on living with a group of that many people but at least I had somewhere to live so I didn't complain. "The arena holds matches every Wednesday," he explained, "although most people besides the Ares cabin don't participate. We eat in the mess hall right over there. And occasionally we play capture the flag."

"Please tell me it's not conventional capture the flag."

A big smile creeped onto Percy's face. "Not at all."

Percy and I talked for a about half an hour as he explained detail after detail of how the half-blood world worked. I spent drachmas instead of dollars, the camp was protected by a sickly looking tree, (although Percy said he had a plan for fixing that later that night) and that he was the son of Poseidon. "So you're a bigshot." I said. He just kind of nodded stating that though he was generally stronger than most other campers it didn't change the fact that he was still just a camper like everyone else.

He asked me if there was anywhere in particular I wanted to go and I gave it a little thought. It wasn't too hard for me to come up with an answer though. There was something I wanted to try out. "Take me to the Archery range." I said.

A ligtbulb seemed to go off in Percy's head when I suggested that. "That's right, you killed that monster with a bow didn't you? I guess you want to see if it was just a fluke or not. Sure let's go, though I warn you if you want to use it you'll have to enter in a competition. Do you mind being embarrassed?" I shook my head. I wasn't the kind of guy who was easily humiliated. "Good. Then you should be able to enter and if you're bad you can just use the excuse that you were trying to figure out whose child you were."

The archery range was a bit more than a hope skip and a jump away but I didn't mind. All I cared about was testing my skills with a bow again. As we approached I saw two major things that stuck out. One was a small group of people who were all wearing the same red and gold outfits with a sun emblazoned on the back. The Apollo cabin for sure. The other thing was an equally small group of around a dozen girls each of whom sported a silver bow and the tattoo of the moon. "Hey Percy, who are they?" I said, pointing at the girls.

"I… I have no idea. Let's go find Chiron we can ask him."

"Look no further for I am already here." A little stunned, Percy and I jumped around to find horseman practically breathing down our necks. "The young girls you see over there are none other than the Hunters of Artemis. They have sworn never to be in a relationship with a man in exchange for eternal life, save for flesh wounds, and the right to travel and hunt with the goddess herself. Apparently their troop was moving through this area when they heard of an archery competition here at camp. And of course what kind of disciple of Artemis would pass a chance like that up? Now that I've answered a question, do me a favor and answer mine: What are you doing here?"

"Actually," I said, "I'm here to sign up for the competition."

"You want to participate?" He asked. Honestly the look he gave me was pissing me off. I liked Chiron, but when I say I want to do something I mean it. It's not like I was just going out on a limb here. I just wanted to see if I was any good. There was no way I was going to win.

"Yes, I want to participate Chiron." I said. I hoped I had put enough finality in it to wipe that look off his face.

"Well if that's what you wish then here." He handed me a green bow and three arrows. "Here's how the competition works. Do you see that target way over there?" I looked in the direction he pointed. At first I didn't see anything but after staring for about a minute I noticed a target sitting an incredible distance away. We were at the top of a small hill so I could just barely make it out over the tree tops.

"Chiron that's ridiculous!" Percy exclaimed. I had to say I agreed. No one short of Apollo and Artemis themselves could make a shot like that. Maybe Chiron too, if he was having a good enough day. Nonetheless though I wanted to try.

"The first person to hit that target wins. The prize is a one day hunting trip with just that person and the goddess of the hunt herself, just the two of them. Still want to try?"

"All I got to do is hit a target right? Piece of cake." I answered my chest swelled in false confidence. I didn't care if I hit the thing or not. If I could get within twenty feet of that it was good enough for me.

So another fifteen minutes passed before the even finally began. Since I was the last entrant I was the last one to shoot. I got a few funny looks of course, a dozen girls versus the Apollo cabin versus some new guy who had just arrived that morning, something like that is bound to attract attention and by attention I mean the whole camp. Everybody from every cabin was there lined up to see me.

Again though I didn't care, if I messed up in front of the whole camp it didn't matter. All I wanted to do was find out if I was any good with a bow. The first ones up were the Apollo cabin. Archer after archer went up one by one trying to nail the target. Each had three shots and each missed three times. The closest anyone got was the leader of the cabin and he missed it by three feet. Did I mention the target was ten feet wide? I did. Well yeah, now you really know how far away it was.

Ten feet wide but so far away it looked like a speck in the distance. Chiron was holding a powerful telescope the whole time trying to get a better look and see how bad each of our screw ups was. Each person's score was ranked by how close they had come to the target, rather than an actual score.

After the Apollo cabin a brief intermission was held. I went back over to Percy to speak with him. He had been watching the whole thing alongside his two friends that he introduced as Grover, an adolescent satyr, and Annabeth, the smartest of the Athena cabin and the cabins leader. We spent some time together, before Chiron blew the horn for the second half of the competition. This time it was the Hunters of Artemis. Oh, and me too.

Another half an hour passed each of the dozen of girls tried their best to hit the target. I figured being Artemis personal disciples they would have fared better but for the most part they were the same as the Apollo cabin. The only one who did any better than the cabin leader was a girl named Zöe Nightshade and she only came within two feet of the target.

A few more girls went up and then finally it came. It was my turn. I admit I was a little shaky, it was a rather larger crowd, but I had my own goal and that was all I cared about. I stuck two of the arrows in the ground and nocked the first one.

In that moment the feeling came back. The world around me vanished into nothingness. All went silent as I stared outward into the sky towards my target. I opened my eyes wide, seeing more than just a target than and a forest. I could see the trees as they swayed in the breeze. Every leaf on every branch as the wind passed over it rustling it, making it sing a quiet song. I could see the target in the distance, my target, the red and white ring going round and round each other marking the place where my arrow had to land. That same sensation came over me as when I had attacked Mormo, this was more than just some target. This was a target I had to conquer. It was both my duty and my right as king. Its only purpose was to fall by my hands and no one else's. I took a deep breath as I drew the bow to its full length, and let go. But I didn't stop there, I quickly pulled the second and third arrows out of the ground, firing each in rapid succession.

When I was done I turned to Chiron who was looking through his telescope, mouth agape. Something was wrong, I could tell as Chiron placed the telescope down very slowly and stood in silence for a good few mintues. After what felt like an eternity he turned looking at the crowd and said "Achilles Hunter of the Hermes cabin… has scored a triple bullseye and has won a hunting trip with the goddess Artemis. Achilles, prepare the few belongings you have and wait for Artemis at sunrise tomorrow at the campfire outside of the strawberry patch."

After I won the crown erupted into applause. I was even getting pats on the back and handshakes from the Apollo cabin members as well as comments saying "Can't wait to have you when you get back from your trip" or "The Apollo cabin is going to be unstoppable now".

While the congratulations from them were nice the looks I was getting from the Hunters were… less than happy and by that I mean the little-boy-we-are-going-to-murder-you-in-your-slee p-I-hope-you-enjoy-your-last-day-of-life kind of looks.

Nonetheless I found out what I wanted to know, and that's that I was very, VERY good with a bow. So I went over to Chiron to ask him if I HAD to accept my reward, since all that mattered to me was determining my own skills. At that moment the hunter closest to my score came over to me. "What did you just say? Are you seriously saying you want to GIVE UP your reward?! What you think that just because you're a boy and you beat us that you can HAVE PITY on us?! That we'll come GROVELING to your feet just because you won a hunting trip with Artemis?! We hunt with Artemis ALL THE TIME! We don't need some stupid reward to do that!" Her tirade got the other Hunters riled up as well. Next thing I know there's a mob of angry teenage girl assassins yelling at me with their hands on their weapons.

Luckily for me Chiron came in and broke everything up. The closing ceremony was held and everyone went back to their usual business. I spent the rest of the day hanging out with Percy and his friends (as well as keeping a promise to Percy that I wouldn't tell anyone about his plan to save the magical tree of monster stopping). We hung out for the rest of the day until dinner was called. I sat with the rest of the Hermes cabin and ate my mom's famous apple pie (I only cried a little) before finally arriving at cabin eleven. Since I would be leaving in the morning I was given a place to sleep. Right next to the door for the night. We all stayed up for a while talking about the days' events (or rather my event) before saying our goodnights and finally going to bed.

The last person to talk to me that night was Brian, the son of Tyche, the goddess of luck. I found this to be rather ironic as the Hermes cabin, as well as everyone else in camp, knew him as 'Bad Luck Brian'. He had blonde medium length hair that came almost to his shoulders. He wore a light brown rough leather coat with matching pants and a white T-shirt. On his right hand was a small golden gauntlet and a strange glowing blue crystal sat around his neck. His dark brown leather boots matched a small satchel he had strapped to his side and looped through the belt. According to him it held his weapons: specially designed playing cards. The edges were lined with celestial bronze and he threw them to attack. All around I thought he was a pretty good guy and reminded me of a certain archaeologist/explorer.

You know, looking back I can't believe just how oblivious I was to what was about to come. Had I known at the time I probably would have gotten up walked right out the door and left. It's funny though because now I'm so happy things turned out like it did. That night led to a lot of hardships and a lot of pain but I wouldn't have had it any other way. I remember waking up that morning and looking at the doorknob with this really bad feeling. Like my whole world was going to change once I turned it, but I had no idea what I was really in store for.


	4. I Get Kidnapped by Rudolph

I had gotten my newfound friend Brian to help wake me up. Unluckily for him, he hadn't been able to sleep well for the past week, though he was glad his bad luck could actually be useful for once. So with a few small shakes Brian roused me from my sleep. I grabbed the few things I had (Chiron had allowed me to keep the bow) and quietly left cabin eleven, careful not to creak the door on the way out. The sun hadn't risen yet and the moon, almost full, hung high in the sky. I couldn't wait for tomorrow night. For some reason I always felt more at ease under a full moon.

I took my time with the walk. It was far enough to tire me out if I jogged there, but close enough that I could easily enjoy moving at a brisk pace. Apparently I had to wait for Artemis at a brazier that sat about twenty or thirty feet from the mess hall. It was basically a Greek bonfire, with a large marble dish of burning wood and a few white stone benches surrounding it.

On one of the benches was a little girl wearing a brown dress. She had straight auburn hair and her little feet were covered by checkered flats. She was holding a metal stick in her hands, poking the fire to keep it alive. I was glad she was tending to it. Even though it was summer, I was near the shore and all the way up in the Long Island sound so I was still pretty cold that cold that night. Still though it was way past curfew and aside from some of the senior campers on patrol, Chiron, and myself no one else had to permission to be outside. So I decided to do the right thing and walked over to her with the intention of telling her to go to bed. "Um excuse me little girl, uh, I think you need to go back to your cabin. It's late and if you get caught out here you probably get in trouble."

She just kept stoking the fire as though I wasn't there. I got a little closer and leaned down thinking she might have bad hearing or something. After all, being the child of a god doesn't mean you have a perfect body. We can get birth defects just like anybody else. As if our lives weren't hard enough already.

Before I could say anything she ended up speaking first. "Your kind for one so young. You're a little hard to understand and a bit hasty. You can be rather random, but you stand firm in what you believe, when you know what it is. You definitely take some getting used to but… yes I think you'll do fine. You'll be good for her I'm sure of it. Now I just need to have a word with Aphrodite."

"Um… excuse me?"

"Hm?"

"I'm sorry were you talking to me?" This little girl was a bit weird.

"Yes and no. I was talking more about you than to you, but the statement was technically directed to you. So to put it simply, yes I was talking to you."

"Oh alright." For a kid she was talking like an adult. So I said the what came naturally. "So I guess you're a daughter of Athena then?"

The girl finally turned her face towards me and when I looked into her eyes I stumbled backwards a bit. Her eyes were, filled with something… fire I think, but not the hot painful kind. No it was warm, if a person's eyes' being warm makes any sense, and had a sort of soft kindness to it, like it was protecting me, taking care of me. I felt like I could sit with her at any time and always feel at ease.

It filled me with memories of my mother. Of her food and the silly animal sounds she made. They were always so realistic. I couldn't believe how many she could do. I tried to learn some but it never went anywhere. I noticed a tear rolling down my face and quickly wiped it, trying to hide the truth. Little did I know…

"Miss your home, do you? Or at least the idea you consider home to be."

"How did you-"

"I may not look it but I'm actually a Goddess. My name is Hestia, goddess of the hearth and more importantly of home. I sit here every day but few ever bother to talk to me. Probably just because I look like a little girl."

Whoa, big shock. This little girl was a goddess. And I had accidentally called her a child of Athena, and told her to go back to bed. I was suddenly very scared that I had insulted her. The other campers had told me stories of people being incinerated by gods and goddesses that pressed the wrong buttons. I had just gotten to camp I didn't want to die just yet. I hadn't even seen the lava falling climbing walls Brian had told me about. I guess all of that shown on my face because she made a remark about it. "Don't worry," she said. I gave out a big sigh of relief to hear that. "I'm not offended by what you said. You were concerned for my wellbeing, and although that concern was unnecessary, it was out of the kindness of your own heart and goodwill. There is nothing wrong in this world with having a kind heart. Just remember Arc, that the rest of this world is not as kind."

I nodded my head. This was advice coming from a goddess, normally I wouldn't care but coming from her everything she says holds serious weight. After thanking her for the advice I sat my things down and relaxed myself on one of the stone benches.

"I take it you're waiting for Artemis?" She asked me. It felt a little weird talking to an eight year old goddess. I wasn't whether I could talk casually or not. But I've never been the one for manners so I figured I talk the same to everybody else. Might as well talk to her like casually too.

"Yeah I uh…won that competition thing for a hunting trip with her."

"You do know you're the second person to win that competition and the first in three thousand years?"

I was? Seriously? "No actually, I had no idea."

"Yes, the last young hero who won the trip trained relentlessly to get the prize. Somehow he had gotten it into his head that he could make Artemis fall in love with him. As a result Apollo, who had been following them, killed him as he was attempting to rape her."

"Oh… that's… she's not going to be happy about this is she?"

"Not at all."

"Am I gonna die?"

"I can't say you won't."

"Great… thanks for the boost in confidence Hestia."

"If you'd like I can give you a charm. If she does decide to kill you, you can place it on and it will fill you with memories of home. You won't be scared or feel the pain."

"Thanks, but I don't plan on dying just yet."

"As you wish Arc."

A little more silence came, the ticking of seconds passing like minutes, the passing of minutes leaping like hours. Time was slow, and it was nice. It had been a long time since time was this slow. The last time was with my mother, years and years ago. Well, the woman I called my mother.

Eventually Hestia turned to look at me. She kept staring like there was something important she was trying to place her finger on and she couldn't tell what it was. Then her eyes got a little wider as she giggled and asked. "So, you've only been in camp for a little while and already you've attained a magical item, and a rare one at that."

"I'm not sure what you mean miss. Everything I have with me I came into camp with. Well, except for this bow and arrow of course."

She suddenly stopped giggling, backing her body up in surprise. Had I really just surprise a goddess? I had thought they were omniscient. Guess not. "If you did not attain it here at camp then where did you get that enchanted necklace?"

I looked down at my shirt. Around my neck was a silver necklace shaped like an upside down letter "A". The triangle in the middle had glass filled with gold dust and the pointed tip had a little tiny hook. "This? You mean it's an enchanted item? My mother gave this to me as a child. She said that even though we were separated that this would let me find her. She said the warmer it felt the closer I was to her loving arms. I thought it felt warm when I lived in that house, but once I left it's always felt as cold as ice, so I thought I had made the feeling up. You know, out of love. I came to believe it was just something she told me to feel better about leaving."

"Most definitely not." She said. "What you have is a _Storge_. It is one of two necklace pieces which combine to form a unique shape. They allow the wearers to play a game of hot or cold, the warmer the necklace the closer they are to the other half. They're rare and hard to come by though because of that dust in the middle."

"The dust is special. It's what makes each one unique, aside from the shape. In order for the enchantment to work, you have to melt a golden drachma, then mix it with nectar and the blood of the two people who have each pendant. Now those may be relatively easy ingredients to come by, but the last one is not. In order for the necklace to tell where somebody is anywhere else in the world, it needs an ingredient than can span the entire globe. In other words, something that can see everywhere at once. It needs the blood of a god."

"T-the blood of a god?"

"Yes, a gods blood, or any immortal for that matter, is different from a mortals. It does not run red, but gold. We call this eternal blood of the gods, Ichor."

"Sounds… icky." At the time I thought it was pretty funny (still do) but she just gave me one of those stern looks that can hush up crying babies.

"You have a powerful item there, if you hang on to it, you're bound to find your mother sooner or later."

I didn't know what to say at the time so I just nodded my head. All my dreams were coming true. I had a home, new friends like Percy and Brian, and now I had a way to find my long lost mother. Things were looking up for this son of Apollo.

We sat in silence for a time, watching the braziers flames flicker in the night as its tiny cinders floated into the sky. Slowly the black as pitch night sky started to turn a pale dull gray. _Twilight_, I thought to myself, _the time when the spirits are alive and the living are dead_. Before I would have never understood what that meant, but being outside in this camp I had a pretty good idea. See there are these things called tree nymphs or dryads or something fairy sounding, and their spirits reside in their tree. Since their literally trees they get up at exactly sunrise you know, since trees need light and stuff like that.

The dryads were pretty cute, though they enjoyed teasing campers and satyrs alike. The campers and Satyrs constantly tried to catch the dryads but whenever they got within arms-reach, they'd turn into a tree, making catching them impossible. Roger told me that if you could catch a dryad, they'll let you taste their sap whenever you please. It sounded like he was trying to refer to something but I didn't care. I had already decided by that point I was going to catch a dryad. I didn't like the idea of there being something that could outrun me. It bothered me more than it should've that even one could escape me.

A little while later I started hearing this weird ringing noise that reminded me of sleigh bells coming from the sky. I looked up to see the strangest thing. It was a bright white chariot being pulled by flying… reindeer? Yup, it was definitely a flying reindeer. It was just one but it was one nonetheless.

I was dazzled by it. It was amazing watching it sail through the skies, "Wow," I said "A living legend staring me in the face. Getting closer and closer and closer and… oh crap." It took me a second to realize the chariot was headed straight at me. I picked up my things and started running, anywhere was better than here.

I'm not a slow guy by any means. When I run there's almost no one who can catch me. But even at my speed I couldn't shake that thing. It didn't matter where I ran or how fast I was, the chariot stayed locked on like a heat seeking missile. Everywhere I went it just kept following me.

Finally my time was at an end. It was seconds from me and I was running out of steam. I took a moment to reflect on my life, since the Greek myths were real I guessed I would be going to wherever hades sent me. There were three plains of death. One was like hell, the other was like heaven, and the last was just the big field thing I had heard about called the fields of Asphodel. At the time I was pretty sure that was where I was going.

As I said my final goodbyes to this world I felt the massive build of a reindeer slam into my back, launching my feet off the ground. It felt as though I had been tossed into the air so I decided, why not? I'll open my eyes. Man was I in for a shock.

I wasn't dead that much was for sure. In fact, I was alive. Alive and very very scared. I was dangling hundreds of feet in the air, suspended by the reindeer, my new orange Half-Blood camp shirt in between his mouth. At first I was flailing around, who wouldn't panic when they're being carried through the sky by a reindeer, but then I thought better of it. After all, a fall from this height would kill me even if I hit water.

As I watched the scenery pass me by I could feel the reindeer moving its head a bit. I started to notice that it was swinging me back and forth, I noticed a bit too late however, as before I could freak he threw his head up and tossed me into the air so I would somersault into the chariot seat.

After being picked up by a reindeer and tossed into Santa's sleigh, I realized there was no way out. If I tried to leave I'd just be walking into mid-air and plummeting towards my death. I always wanted to go skydiving, but it was out of a plane with a parachute, not out of a reindeer drawn chariot with a bow and arrow.

So I just sighed and slumped back in my seat. After all, if you can't beat em' join em, so I just went along with this magical reindeers ride through the sky. It was nice honestly. Watching the scenery change underneath me, and so quickly too. I was certainly going faster than any manmade craft. After all I don't know any other plane that can cross the Atlantic in half an hour.

The trip took awhile and seemed to span the entire globe. Eventually I grew tired and fell off to sleep. I was had a nice dream too. I was with Percy on his adventure to recover the master bolt. We were fighting medusa, Percy hacking and slashing with the help of his crystal ball, keeping her busy while I searched for a cure to heal Grover and Annabeth who had somehow turned to stone. I eventually found it and was rushing over to help Percy when the ground shook and suddenly erupted into the underworld. I started falling into the Abyss, I could see the fields of punishment right below me. I couldn't believe I had been that bad of a person. I was falling… falling into the fields of punishment… faster and faster I fell… endlessly falling…

Falling?

I suddenly woke up realizing I really WAS falling. Well, the chariot was going into a dive so it FELT like I was falling. I looked around to see where we were. The moon was high in the sky and it was still night time but my digital watch said it was eight in the morning. I looked around but all I could see was trees, trees we'd soon be crashing into. I placed my stuff on my back and carefully got up to crouch. If I stayed in this chariot when it hit the ground I'd be toast. I had no other choice. I had to jump, if I didn't jump I'd be dead for sure and if I did, well, there was less chance of it. All I had to do was land in the trees. That's it. If I did that I could at least walk away, with a few broken bones but still.

So I quickly scanned around trying to locate the right spot to jump off. I found my target and studied it close. It was a group of trees that were perfect to jump off at. If I jumped there the jump wouldn't be very far and the way the trees were clumped together made the softer ones at top able to reduce my force and speed while thicker lower branches were spaced so they could fully break my fall. If I jumped there not only would I survive but I might even walk away with nothing but a few cuts and bruises. After that I could figure out where I was and make my way back to camp. I was sure Artemis would understand… I hoped.

I crouched low as the chariot continued at just the course I thought it would. I inched towards the edge, feet ready to spring, paying attention to everything around me just in case we changed course. Right as I was about to jump though I noticed something out of the corner of my eye, it was run down, covered in vines, and looked like no one had stepped in there since, but it was unmistakable. That was the house mother and I lived in. That was the only other place I had ever called HOME.

I froze, stared at the old rundown building, and missed my chance to jump. The chariot kept hurdling towards the ground, but I didn't know. I had already sat back down. Of all the places for it to bring me why did it bring me there? I clutched my necklace. Right before I crashed into my old yard I noticed one other thing. For the first time since I left this place, my necklace was warm.

My mother was nearby.


	5. I Hunt My Mother

The sound of the crash reverberated throughout the woods. Any critter could have heard me for miles. I couldn't move through the pain and a sharp noise was ringing in my ears. As I laid in a pile of splintered wood and twisted metal, my body tried desperately to black out. I refused though, the warmth of my necklace a glimmer of hope I was not about to give up. I fought pain with all my might as I pulled myself up from the wreckage. The warmth was ebbing away… I had to fight it. I had to find my mother. She was close, so close. This was my one chance. Today I would begin a long hunt to track her down.

I let out a little laugh. I was going to hunt for my mother when I was supposed to be on a hunting trip with the goddess of the hunt herself. As I stood up I gave a little prayer to Artemis asking that she bless this trek of mine. Maybe she wouldn't mind me skipping out so long as I was still hunting something, even if that something was my mother.

Brushing myself off I got a little shock. You know how normally you pray and there's no literal answer? Like you don't go "God teach me patience" and then a big booming voice comes down from the sky that says "Sure, I got you mortal bro"? Instead, god's supposed to send some really annoying person into your life that teaches you how to not punch people in the face. Yeah… not the case this time. I got my answer, and quickly too.

"Actually, I wouldn't mind at all. In fact, care if I join you?" Said a voice from behind me, I tried to turn around and nock an arrow, but all I did was knock my own butt to the ground. Even though I was on the ground I still clambered to get an arrow, only to realize my bow wasn't strung. Chiron told me to string it up before I left so it would be ready to fire at any monsters. Instead I ignored him, keeping it unstrung so it would be easier to carry. I figured, I'm hunting with a goddess, what's there to fear. That's what happens when you don't listen to Chiron I guess. He may be a horse, but he's still a wise ass. "Hey what's wrong?" I wasn't about to pay any attention to the voice. After watching my foster father turn into a monster, I was fully aware of the fact that they could talk. Giving them a moment to attack would be bad so I quickly strung up my bow.

"For the love of Zeus… what happened to this chariot? Were you in it when it crashed? No wonder you look like the underworld boy." I wasted no time, with my bow strung I quickly nocked an arrow and fired, rather blindly, at my opponent. With the bow in my hand my gifts given to me as a child of Apollo kicked in allowing my vision and body to steady. With my head a little clearer I was able to get a good look at my target for the first time. But what I saw made me drop my bow my bow.

It was a young woman, roughly my age, carrying a silver bow and dressed all in white. Her hair was done in a fishknot braid going down her back, and though she carried a bow there was no quiver to be found. Two daggers roughly the size of my arm were sheathed at her waist, held on by a strip of green cloth tied around her dress.

But these just made her look like a normal hunter. It was her eyes, her deep silver eyes that gave it away. Her eyes shone bright that night as they gave off the glow of the moon. In their presence I felt powerful and weak, strong like the world couldn't touch me, and weak knowing they never could.

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't…"

"It's fine," said Artemis. "You're obviously much shaken from the crash you just had to deal with. You were disoriented and in an unfamiliar place. I don't blame you for firing at an unknown presence. You were merely trying to remain the hunter while being hunted yourself. You refused to become prey, and so you fought."

"There's no need to worry, I'm here now. Here drink this, it's nectar and has the same effect as ambrosia. It will help you recover."

I took it and well… you know the drill. Tasted some of my mother's sweet tea, got all teary eyed. That's how it goes you know. Artemis didn't say anything for a while, knowing her huntresses I wasn't surprised. They were all rather, not cold but business like. No nonsense sort of people. So I was expecting it I guess. I was surprised though when she finally asked me what was wrong.

"It's just…" I said. Speaking was a lot harder than I thought it would be. "When I was a kid there was this woman, a foster mother, who took me in for a pretty long time. I loved her quite a bit and I cherish the few memories I still have of her. Every time I drink nectar or eat ambrosia, heck even when I ate at the dining hall at camp, the food always tastes like her cooking and I get all teary eyed from the memories."

Artemis looked away, almost like she was trying to hide something but I thought nothing of it. I was just glad to still be alive after nearly shooting her in the head with an arrow. "I see you crashed my chariot young man. I have to pull the moon across the sky with that you know."

Scratch that. Shooting her in the head with an arrow AND crashing her magical chariot. Wow, I was on a roll today. "I'm sorry miss," I said. Given I was still crying from the nectar I probably looked more pleady than I meant too. "I couldn't control it. It was like it was in Auto-pilot. In fact I didn't even know it was yours."

"I thought Chiron told you, you would be picked up?"

"He did, but he didn't say anything about a magic glowing reindeer."

"Most campers know about simple things like that. If you haven't then you must be knew. How long have you been at camp Half-Blood?"

"A day."

"Seriously? You're telling me you arrived on the day of the tournament and wanted to meet a goddess so badly you signed up and won?"

I saw her widen her stance and inch her hand towards her dagger. I quickly shook my head and reassured her that wasn't the case. "No mam. I had killed a monster the previous day with a bow. I just wanted to see if it was a fluke or if I was actually good with a bow. If I did well I figured I was probably the son of Apollo."

She kinda took a step back at that and for a second, just a split second, she looked terribly hurt. But then it turned to a look of surprise. "You mean you competed in a hunting trip with a goddess to find out if you were a good shot with a bow and then won by accident?"

"Yeah that's about right." After saying that I got a weird sight, Artemis the almighty goddess of the hunt was busting out laughing. From what I had seen so far of both her and her huntresses, I had thought she was the kind of woman who was always serious. I guess even the most serious of people still need a laugh from time to time.

"Ha, that's funny young man. You participated in a tournament with such a high prize whose earning was priceless to the other participants only to test your abilities. If I were not speaking to you now I would think you were some uncaring boastful person who looked in a mirror with every chance he had."

"Ah but these things don't matter now. Just a moment ago you sent a prayer to me did you not? Asking for me to bless the 'Hunt' for your mother?"

Whoops, guess I forgot about that. "Uh well uh… I didn't know you were here and all and I wasn't sure you would actually be listening and uh…"

"There's no need to be embarrassed. I was planning on hunting the Nemian Lion, but hunts that have a personal stake are always more enjoyable than the ones done for fun alone. So tell me, what way are we to track her and why are we 'hunting' her down?"  
I explained to Artemis all there was to tell about my mother. Everything I knew and could think of just came spilling out of me. I didn't know why at the time but something about her just felt… good. Being around her made me feel safe and secure. I guess it's because she was a goddess.

Her face remained mostly the same throughout my tale. I was worried she would get bored or annoyed with what I was saying, but she just continued to listen, like she had all the time in the world. Well when you're an immortal goddess I guess you do. When I was finished she just looked off into the distance for a while before turning back to me.

"So the only thing we have to track her with is the necklace around your neck? Let's hurry then. We don't have much time."

And just like that off we went, running through the forest. You'd be surprised but she can run pretty fast, sometimes it seemed like she wasn't even touching the ground. Then again sometimes she didn't even seem like her. She seemed to always look like her regular self, but sometimes out of the corner of my eye she seemed to morph turning into all sorts of different animals from eagles, to tigers, to wolves, all in a split, barely visible, second. The longer we dashed through the trees, the more my respect for the gods grew. They may be all mighty, but they sure have the bite to back up their bark.

All things have to come to an end eventually I guess, and our journey ended all too soon. The necklace on my skin was piping hot. The heat was so intense beads of sweat began to drip down my chest and I was constantly checking to make sure I wasn't being burned by the metal. A part of me was scared it would grow so hot it would light my clothes on fire, though Artemis assured me that wouldn't happen. I have to say I was skeptical, but I'm not about to argue with a three thousand year old deity.

Finally it began to glow, bright golden rays streaming off of it in a cascade of light. Time got slower as my body moved faster. The light meant my mother was close now. Really close. A hundred feet, fifty feet. Left? No, right! I had to move, I had to go! Over this rock! Under this branch! She's here! I just have to get through this thicket Behind it! There's a clearing! She's there she's really…!

And in a single moment... my whole world came to a sudden halt.

What stood there was not my mother. It may have been as ferocious as any mother would be, but it was not my mother.

The massive beast stood on all fours. Its golden fur's gleam intensifying from light of my necklace. Razor sharp fangs that could cut through steel sat in its massive jaws and paws as large as my head were adorned with sharp talons that could tear a car to shreds.

In front of me was not my mother.

In front of me was the Nemian lion.

And in its' mouth drool oozing mouth... dangled my mothers necklace.


	6. Starlight

Anger ripped through me like a tornado. With tear filled eyes I drew my bow and launched volley after volley of arrows at the beast. I didn't care about anything or anyone else at that moment. I just wanted it dead. I knew the stories of the Nemean lion, its fur was impenetrable. I could fire as many shots as I liked but it would never put a dent in its hide, much less slay the beast.  
Eventually a hand came to rest on my shoulder and I turned, my bow drawn again and ready to fire, only to see Artemis standing there with a sad look on her face. I didn't understand why, but the look made me feel terrible, worse somehow than seeing the necklace dangle from the lion's jaws. She seemed terribly sad, like there was something she desperately wanted to say but couldn't. Like there was something she wanted to do but wasn't allowed to. The corners of her eyes watered ever so slightly, on the verge of tears. It wasn't like the other times, where the look was there but vanished. This time it lingered for a while, clearly visible and unmistakable. But like all the other times it faded away, replaced this time by wide eyed surprise. She mouthed the word "look" and I did, gasping and backing up a bit at what I saw.

The Nemean lion was no longer alone. While I was busy firing and being calmed by Artemis, two hydras had come to even the odds. Giant bodies like a long necked dinosaur's ambled towards me on the ground with their two dozen heads, teeth dripping with venom, writhed about in the air, snapping and roaring.

"I think our problems just got worse, Arc." Like she needed to tell me that. It's not hard to figure out that things are getting bad when you're forced to fight two hydras and a Nemean lion. And to make things more problematic, my trigger happy arrow shooting a second ago left me with two shots left. Today was not looking like a good day for me.

"It seems another predator has obtained your prey Arc, and as its rival you need to strike it down. Go, destroy that lion. I shall take on the hydras!" She said and drew two arrows shooting at the throats of the hydras. Getting their attention she fired shot after shot all while screaming and running off.

I almost didn't notice but the Nemean lion had also begun to follow her. Refusing to let it go I found the biggest rocks I could and hurled them at its head. Every rock landed where I wanted it to so I guess anything I shot or threw I had good aim with. That would be nice to know the next time I'm in a water balloon fight.

Well the rocks got its attention and the angry beast came lunging after me. I drew an arrow hoping I could get a shot, but I wasn't sure where I could hit. Realizing there was no place I just barely managed to find enough time to dodge.

The battle continued like this for what seemed like ages. He'd swipe with massive claws and I'd barely find the time to dodge. Time and again I would dodge too slowly and take a hit, I tried so hard, but always to no avail. Finally, I grew angry and even tried to go toe to toe with him, punching him in the face. Not wise. He took his giant claw brought it down on me hard sending me soaring into a tree and knocking all the wind out of me.

It gave out a mighty roar and stood on its hind legs. It was then that I realized its weakness. "Heh," I said as I stood. I had to hold the right side of my chest with my bloody left arm to stop the bleeding on my side, he had gotten in a really good blow. "I see. So you're whole body is covered in that invincible fur of yours." I laughed a little, I guess just out of fatigue. "Well guess what little guy?" The Nemian lion turned its head towards me and looked me dead in the eye. Maybe it could understand me? "I… *huff*… haven't seen an opponent yet… who's eye I couldn't stab… and who's mouth was plated with armor!" I drew my bow and nocked an arrow and aimed at his open jaws. I watched as the arrow flew towards the beast but it jumped out of the way and came charging ripping the ground out from beneath it with each of its heavy footsteps. I fired another at its roaring mouth, but to no avail. He snapped its jaw shut just in time for it to bounce off its head. The same head he then used to ram me into a tree. I barely found the strength to roll out of the way before he sank his teeth into the earth I was in just a moment before.

Stumbling and tired I rose to my feet, gasping for breath. I was out of arrows and out of luck, yet I couldn't give up. I had to beat him, to destroy him for good… I couldn't let it end this way! "Hey ugly!" I screamed, my heart filled with sorrow and anger. "Do you hear me?! Listen bud and listen good!" I almost keeled over from pain and blood loss but somehow I managed to stay standing. I looked at him my shirt drenched with my tears. "You stole… you stole my mother from me you bastard! You stole the one thing in life I actually cared for! The one thing I wanted! And now! Now… now I'm going to destroy you! I'm gonna teach you true pain… I'm going… to put all of my dreams… into this next one! You can't stop me now!" What happened next I didn't really understand, somehow instinct told me that I could. Raising my hand in the air as I screamed I drew my bow with the other. Then, with that night's full moon at my back, I felt a surge of energy rush to my fingers as white light swirled around me like a blanket of stars. I should've been shocked or surprised, but I wasn't. Somehow the idea of the entire night sky wrapping around my hand seemed completely natural as it molded itself into the shape of an arrow. I nocked my bow, with it and watched as the light came to encase that too, forcing it to grow until it was twice the original size and filled with intricate markings that depicted the night sky and the moon. Neon blue crescents and stars filled small areas not covered by the white light and radiated throughout the clearing.

I held up the bow, summoning every memory I could of my mother, of my home, tears flowed like rivers as I released the arrow and screamed at the top of my lungs. "TAKE THIS! LUNALESCA!". The light surged forward engulfing everything. It barreled away destroying anything in its path, trees, rocks, even the ground itself. It shown so bright the sky seemed to turn to day. For just a moment the world above my head turned its usual light blue with its normal fluffy white clouds before turning back to a dull tar black.

Finally the light settled. A scar was left on the ground, earth that was cut up into nothingness left a ditch seven feet across and equally as deep. Where the lion once stood there was now nothing but a golden pelt. I hobbled toward it, falling rather ungracefully into the pit. I fell to the ground on my knees as I looked at the pelt. A reward I guess for defeating the beast. Picking it up I felt more tears begin to well up in my throat and just as I was about to cry I heard something fall to the ground. I looked down to check it out and I couldn't hold my tears back any longer. On the ground was my mother's necklace. It had been protected from the blast by the pelt! I held both of them in my hands as I cried. Nothing else really mattered at the moment. The monster was dead and the necklace was retrieved but… "Mother… where are you?"

I'll never forget what happened next. It changed my life forever and in a million different ways. It brought me down a road I certainly wasn't expecting but I sure didn't mind. If I could go back to that day and had the chance to stop what was going to happen, part of me would probably want to, but the rest of me would just watch and relive the moment.

I froze as a pair of arms had wrapped around my neck and were holding me. I could feel my shirt get wet as drops of warm water dripped onto it. Someone, a woman by the feel of it, was holding me… and she was crying.

"Don't worry honey, mommy's right here!"


	7. SLAP!

"Don't worry honey… mommy's right here… with your death certificate!" I twisted my head around, eyes wide in fear. I was tired, too tired. Even if I had a blade I couldn't have stopped her. A Dracanae… evil beast-women with serpentine legs and fangs like knives. I watched as those very same fangs now came for my neck. I was powerless… I had fought so hard searching for her… yet in the end… it had amounted to nothing. This was how I would leave this world. At least I should be able to see my mother in the underworld… I hoped.

"I don't think so, monster." Instead of breathing my final breath I watched as the monster drew her's before vanishing into a pile of golden dust that seeped into the ground. Looking behind me I saw Artemis, completely unscathed with a drawn bow in her hands and a smug look on her face. "You're alright… thank goodness. I'm… I'm glad to see you're not hurt."

I guess she didn't get a very good look at me, which was better for her anyways because I was definitely hurt. In fact, I wasn't sure how much longer I would last. I didn't want to go so easily, I had only just made it to camp. Since I was going to go I decided to see if I could push my luck, and ask her for a last request. Oh boy if only I had known…

"Artemis… can… can you do something for me? When… when you go back to your huntresses… back to camp… can you tell them that I… that I defeated the lion and the hydras, by myself? I want to… to leave them… with a good taste in their mouth of… the boy who stayed a day…"

"What are you-? By Zeus… NO!" After that she rushed over to me. She must have noticed just how bad my wounds really were. On your typical day that reaction wouldn't have bothered me in the slightest. But this was no normal person, this was Artemis. The man hating and I dare say most proud of all the gods, at least from what I've seen. Yet here she was frantically tugging at my clothes and trying to bandage up my wounds.

Looking at her face scared me. Her eyes were filled with panic, and her movements were quick, but sloppy from her jittering hands. She seemed terrified, like she was about to lose something she couldn't afford losing. Being a foster kid, you learn to take care of yourself, so I'm not one on somebody trying to do everything for me. Besides, a goddess shouldn't be in this kind of state, it's dishonorable and just kind of degrading. Especially for an unclaimed hero…

Not wanting to see her like this any longer, and with the world slowly fading away around me, I put my hand on hers and squeezed so she would look at me. Her eyes… they were so scared… so filled with panic and tears. That really pushed me over the edge, I don't like to see people cry, especially girls, and most importantly, I HATE being the one to make them cry… "Artemis…" I said. "Hey it's alright. If you're trying to save me because you're afraid you'll offend my godly parent or something it's fine. I'm unclaimed so I doubt they'd care anyways. And anyway you're Artemis the Huntress. You're a goddess and you shouldn't be doing this kind of stuff for a mortal like me. What if the other Olympians saw you? You'd be the laughing stock of all of Olympus! Just let me go Artemis, it's… my time…"

After that I received the one thing I'll never forget.

A good slap to the face.

I was already dazed, I could barely hear or see, but right before I blacked out, I heard the words that would change my life.

"Laughing stock?! Offending your godly parent?! Let them laugh all they want! I AM your godly parent! I'm your mother! Let them laugh! I feel no shame in trying to save the life of my SON! MY SON! THE SON OF ARTEMIS!"

I woke up with my head throbbing and my brain swimming laps. My right side and left arm felt like they were on fire and freezing at the same time and the rest of me just plain hurt. I couldn't speak to save my life, literally, and it took what felt like an eternity just to get my eyes to open. I'm glad I did though because wow did I get to see a sight.

I was lying on an old twin sized bed with reindeer sheets that looked like they belonged to some kid. The walls were painted a light yellow and the floor was covered in green shaggy carpet. There was a small nightstand to my right with an old Buzz Lightyear alarm clock I hadn't seen in years. A little past the foot of my bed was a bookshelf covered in toys and to my left was a huge toy bin filled with… childrens books? Guess who ever lived here got it backwards.

That's when it hit me. Everything that had happened plunged back into my head. I was… alive? And more importantly…

"Are you alright?" I heard a voice say from across the room. I tried to look up but couldn't through the pain. It didn't matter though, I didn't need to see who it was to know.

"M… mother?" I said, and watched as Artemis, now dressed exactly as I remember my mother dressing, poked her head over top of mine for me to see. Her chestnut brown hair extended well past her shoulders in a long ponytail. Her long green dress and white blouse gave off the look that she was not just a mom, but the perfect one. The best part to see was her smile, the one I always thought about when times got rough. The smile that cut through any darkness no matter how thick. This was my mother, of that much, I was finally sure.*

"Mom… where… where are we?"

"Can't you tell… we're at home silly."

After taking a good look around I realized, she was right. This was my room from when I lived with her so long ago. It was my house. OUR house. "But… how? I saw this place when I landed here… it was in shambles…"

"Just a disguise made by the mist lunabug. Easy for a goddess to produce."

Mist was this stuff that apparently kept non magical people from seeing the magical world. At least that's what Chiron and Percy told me.

"So… you just made it look like it was rundown? That's pretty ingenious."

"Heh, thanks. But you need to rest. I went out and caught some rabbits. It's not much but would you mind rabbit stew to eat?" Mom's homemade rabbit stew? No way was I gonna pass that up. Still something didn't feel right. I felt like there was something about Artemis that I was forgetting… something that had to do with me… something BIG.

She came in a little while later with nectar and ambroasia before heading back to continue cooking. This time it just tasted like chocolate and apple juice. I concentrated on those tastes because I didn't want to spoil my appetite. With those in my stomach the pain slowly ebbed away until it was nothing but a dull throb all over and my head cleared up enough for me to see and think straight.

Mother called me for stew, but I still wasn't able to stand up quite yet. After about two or three minutes of struggling she came in to help. She looked worried, guess I was in worse shape than she thought.

Dinner was nice. We talked all about that day, about my short stay at camp. And of course all the things that happened to me after she left. Our conversation just kept going on and on and on. So much so that we forgot about the stew and had to reheat it. After having food in our stomachs we got to even more talking. Finally what it was that had been troubling hit me.

"Mom… I'm… not supposed to exist… right?"

Guess that got her attention because her spoon stopped in mid-air on the way to her mouth. Then she got one of those I-Knew-This-Day-Would-Come looks and stared me awkwardly in the eyes. Like she didn't want to talk about it but had to.

"It's true… you… shouldn't exist. I made an oath a long time ago forbidding myself from men. But… then I met your father and... I couldn't… I didn't mean to… and then you…"

She was getting more messed up than I wanted to see her so I told her she didn't really have to go on. Besides, I knew what happened to my mother at last. Who my father was didn't really matter to me. Once you've had fifty of them you stop caring which one's the real thing. "Well, I guess I'm staying in the Hermes cabin the rest of my life then huh? Ah well…"  
All of a sudden mom got all offended. "Certainly not. My son will not be sleeping in that filthy over cramped Hermes cabin, strutting around with thieves and other vagabonds as though he belongs there. The purpose of the cabins is to separate the children of the major gods based on birth parent. You are a child of Artemis and as such WILL sleep in that cabin. When you have returned to Camp Half-Blood I will come and claim you personally in the flesh."

Oh yeah that's right… the proudest of the gods… "Mom, you can't! You made an oath over… a really really long time ago! You can't waltz into camp and claim me like that! You'll get into all sorts of trouble!"

"Arc… I can't keep this secret forever you know. Zeus WILL find out, whether it's now or later he will know eventually. If I'm going to be punished for having and loving my own son, I'd at least like to make sure that I'm the one who claims him."

I couldn't really argue with her on that point. She was my mother and all she wanted was to have the chance to say that I was hers. Not some unclaimed worthless hero, but a true son of the Queen of the stars and goddess of the hunt. I guess when you look at it that way, it's her right and not mine. So I have no place to argue or interfere.

But I wasn't really so worried about that as I was the consequences. I had talked to Percy. Heard how he wasn't supposed to have been born, and the lengths the gods went to deal with him. It didn't sound pretty, and I sure wasn't liking how things might end up going for me. It was one thing for Percy, his Dad was one of the biggest baddest gods there are. A member of the "big three" as Annabeth called them. What's more his promise well… it didn't last long. As for me… my mother has been keeping her promise for well over what? Three THOUSAND years now? I don't know, a really really long time. And now with me she's broken the taboo…

Mom and I went to bed that night in the same house for the first time that night in years. But somehow I couldn't sleep. I could feel a horrible storm brewing.

Author's Notes

*For a perfect description of what she looks like, look up Trisha Elrich from Full Metal Alchemist. She's based entirely off of her and if you want to know her voice imagine Erza from Fairy Tail, or the White Haired Moka from Rosario+Vampire. As for fans of both, give Trish Erza's voice just for kicks anyway. I personally think it's rather funny.


	8. Westeria

It's been about a week since my big discovery and I'm back to living in the Hermes cabin, with a new coat of course. Everyone was shocked that I managed to bring down the Nemian lion, being so new and all. I assured them it was just a lucky shot, which it was. And the Apollo cabin kept talking about how they couldn't wait for my father's official claim… if only they knew!

As for me, I just went through usual orientation. I met a man named Dionysus, the god of parties and alcohol, went to a few basic classes that helped me to learn some greek and taught me a bit more about certain monsters and the ancient history. After that I went to the coliseum with the rest of my cabin. Today we were grouped with the Athena cabin. I looked around to see if I could find Annabeth, but it was pointless. She was nowhere to be found. I guess she and Grover left with Percy, not that I was surprised by that at all. Honestly I was just happy to end up training with my friend Brian.

Since we were in the coliseum we had to go through weapons training. Having fought monsters twice already with a bow and being the son of Artemis, I had come to learn a valuable lesson; Bows are nice, but eventually you run out of arrows. And if they get to close it's as good as useless. So I decided I needed to learn something else, preferably something completely different than a bow in every way.

That's when I saw it, the perfect thing for me, or rather the most IMPERFECT thing for me. It was sitting in the corner of the armory, untouched and covered in hundreds of cobwebs. It was a beautiful shining silver trident easily taller than me. Its tri-pointed spear head glimmered like starlight and the bottom tip twisted around like a screw. Adorned right where the three rods met was a shining sapphire half the size of my palm. I loved it and thought it was beautiful, I had to have it. Plus there was no way a weapon like that would be natural for a child of Artemis.

I wanted to make it my personal weapon so I picked it up and turned around, meaning to walk over to the counter and permanently register it as mine. But what I thought I would see, and what was actually happening were two very different things. Everyone was staring at me with their mouths open just like at the tournament. Great, here I was trying to be inconspicuous. And I just had to go and mess things up ugh… story of my life.

"How… how are you doing that?" asked one of my cabin members. I think his name was Barney or something. He always wore this green shirt and purple pants so I guess that's where the name comes from.

"Doing what?" I asked.

"Picking that up. That trident has a spell on it. Only the person who will die wielding it can pick up the damn thing. What's worse, anyone who has died in the very first fight they used it in. It's been sitting in that same spot of the shed for over a hundred years now. No one's ever been able to lift it up… well until you just now that is."

Oh goodie… I was chosen by a metal stick to die fighting with the metal stick… how wonderful… now I'm going to go unnoticed for sure. To be honest there aren't that many things that bug me… but this did. Predicting the future? What a load of bull. I don't believe in destiny. Never have, never will. Nothing is set in stone, life is what we make it, what we choose and we decide how it will end. And I was going to prove it here and now. "Well, this is certainly very strange, but here in camp half-blood strange is the norm. So rather than gawking, let's get out there and see what everyone can do.

So off we went into the coliseum. We were each given an opponent to spar with except me. Apparently I had proven myself so much already that I was "seeded", or I got less rounds than everybody else since we were fighting tournament style. Anyways, my turn finally came up after Brian (who tripped over a rock) was defeated. My opponent was a girl named Widow, daughter of Arachne the spider god. She wore nothing but black leather held together in different places with lace and string. Her black hair was long and smooth with white dots that looked almost like eyes. She had a scar on her right eye, and her left canine was a long fang instead of a normal tooth, that jutted quite the ways out of her mouth.

"Alright you two, draw your weapons." She responded quickly, pulling out a white whip that looked like it was made of webbing. A wicked grin crossed her face. I guessed she was an accomplished fighter, she certainly looked it. But I wasn't concerned about that. What I wanted to do was disprove "fate". So I did the only natural thing. I drew the trident.

Of course the crowd gasped. Why would I willingly draw the trident when I knew what it would do? Well it doesn't matter to me what they think, I had a point to prove and I was going to. I took the trident and pointed it right at Widow, a big smile on my face. I made it clear I wasn't afraid of her, or of this trident. I think that made her mad, because she didn't even wait for the fight to start.

I watched as she raised the whip high up into the air and brought it down with a crack. But it didn't just hit the ground, it stuck to it and started to grow, slithering about like a snake. It came at me fast and then the end sprung up into the air trying to take my head off. For a moment I thought I heard a voice say 'dodge left' and I almost did, but I noticed the whip surging that direction and made sure to dodge to the right instead. _So that's why this trident kills its hosts in their first fights… they instinctually listen to whatever the voice tells them and get killed because it lies. Well I won't have any part of that! I fight how I like to fight! Not how some dumb stick tells me to._

Having dodged the whip I came rushing towards her trident in hand, when I heard the voice again. **Dodge right.** No way, I thought and dodged left instead and took a hard blow to the chest. Apparently, it figured out my plan to just do the opposite of whatever it said, so I would have to be careful. I decided from here on I'd completely tune out the voice, relying totally on my own abilities.

I rushed widow a second time and brought the trident over my head out of the corner of my eye though I saw something coming out of the middle of the whip. Apparently it could shoot out smaller whips from the original one from any point on the white rope. Even after dodging the first one I was attacked by five more of the tendrils. I dodged the first two by just jumping backwards and then deflected the next two while dodging the fifth and final one with a small backwards summersault. But now I was all the way on the other side of the ring. If I wasn't careful she could knock me out, and then it would be over. I took the time to watch her whip. Slowly it started to fill back into the original. That's when I found her weakness. I rushed one last time before the whip was fully back together, hoping my plan was right, and it was. When she shot out the other parts of her whip she lost the ability to pull it back quickly. Meaning once I was close, game over. She tried to shoot more webs out of it, but what I lack in physical strength I always made up for in my speed. She could shoot her tendrils all day but she'd never land a blow since I was so good at jumping and summersaults. Thank you mom number eight, for being such a great gymnastics teacher.

The time had come, I whipped the trident over my head and brought it down on her as hard as I could. Unfortunately I got a surprise, apparently that revealing outfit of hers wasn't all for show. From a distance it looked like it was just your average leather outfit, but up close I could see just how wrong I was. It fit too well on her body for that and was hard as steel. It wasn't leather she was wearing, but armor that reminded me of a spider's carapace. With crazy strength she deflected the blow and even sent me flying a few feet. I landed just in time to jump out of the way as she slammed her fist into the ground. She had completely abandoned her whip and was now using two bronze daggers that had been painted black instead. We spent the next ten minutes trading relentless blows with each other, always sending sparks flying our bodies twisting to meet the blow of the other, in the end though she lost as I pelted her daggers away and placed the tip of the trident at her throat.

She had lost, and I was still alive. Arc versus ancient fairy tales, one Arc, fairy tales zero. Of course it didn't matter, I had just beaten a hardened veteran with not only a weapon I had never used before but a cursed one at that. I had just lost all the chances I had at not being famous at camp. The only way something else could possibly outdo my fame today, was if Brian scored all seven's on a slot machine in a casino.

Tired and worn out I decided to go over to the fireplace to relax. I sat down next to Hestia and she started talking to me. She let me know that she could feel me coming home last week, and that she knew the truth of my mother. I almost panicked but she reassured me she wouldn't say anything. Hestia figured that since Artemis was going to come out and say it soon herself anyways, there was no need for her to say anything. So she would keep quiet until then. I thanked her and after I had rested up a bit, told her goodbye and set off to do… whatever.

That's when my day finally got fun. "HEEEEEEEY! ARC!" I turned my head to see Brian running towards me, well more like stumbling towards me. He couldn't take a few steps without tripping over something. He managed to get to me somehow without falling on his face for once.

"Hey Brian what's up?"

"Have you ever gone nymph chasing?"

Oh no. I knew what that sport was. You couldn't be in camp for ten minutes without knowing what that was. See there are these things called nymphs. They're the living spirits of trees and stuff like that. In camp there's a little "sport" where satyrs (and some campers) try to catch the nymphs. If you catch them there's supposedly a law among the nymphs that's supposed to be some great prize or something. No one knows what the prize is as no one, save for some of the gods and a few of the stronger smarter monsters here and there, have ever done it. Some say it's supposed to be full rights to a certain section of forest or land or something like that. But most of those who participate believe it's something a bit more… _lewd._ Sad, I know, but who cares. As a result I never cared for it, but it was always fun to watch a satyr or camper slam their face into a tree.

"No but I know all about it. Why do you ask?"

"Well," he said. "There's this Nymph who won't stop messing with me. Whenever she sees me she gets all snippy and won't leave me alone. I'm used to people calling me Bad Luck Brian, but she's just relentless. You're a pretty good fighter and all so I was wondering if you could do something about it?"

That's when I got pissed. I don't like bullies and anybody, I mean ANYBODY, who messes with my friends, is going to pay the price. "Sure bud," I said. "I'll lend you a hand. Show me this Nymph girl."

He took me to the edge of the forest where the more "intense" games were known to be held. Basically here the nymphs were known not just for running away, but kicking your butt all over the marble floors of the camp.

I looked up into the sky, the moon was starting to rise. It wasn't quite night yet, but it was still late enough that the now waning moon was still visible in the sky. At the edge of the forest I could make out three young ladies who looked roughly my age standing around having a chat.

"Is that them?" I asked Brian.

"Yeah boss." I gave Brian a weird look. "What? It felt right." I just shook my head and asked him which one it was. He pointed to the one in the middle. She was tall for a girl but not giant, maybe five foot nine with long red hair and a gray dress. It took her a while but she eventually noticed us, her pompous look turning to a kind of judging sneer.

"Look girls, bad luck brought his unlucky pet. Come to take back what we took from your friend?"

I was stunned. Brian didn't say anything about something being stolen and I decided I'd ask him as much. "Well," he said. "They didn't steal it I just made a bet with them. They said the rookie Arc would never be able to hunt with Artemis for a day and make it back alive. When you didn't show up the next day and the huntresses left, well people kind of assumed… and they did too so they took it from me."

"Is that true?"

"Yeah what of it?"

"You lost the bet. As you can clearly see I went hunting and came back alive or maybe you haven't noticed the impenetrable lion coat I'm wearing."

"Oh I've noticed it. But it doesn't matter. Once something is in the hands of a nymph, it's all hers. You can't catch me I'm the fastest and most cunning of them all. If you want your friends little 'Good luck gift' from his mother, you'll have to come get it!"

That last part really sent me over the edge. Just in case you guys haven't already noticed, I have some mommy issues, and that nymph had just struck my last nerve. "What's your name, spirit?"

"My name? It's Wisteria if you must know. Why?"

"Tch, I just need to know what little rhyme to come up with after I crush you!" And with that I lunged after her trying to catch her. I didn't know what the prize for catching a nymph was and I didn't care. All I knew was that the most disgraceful thing that could happen to her is being caught by a human. If I caught her, I could blackmail her. Give me his stuff and I'll keep it a secret. I know, I shouldn't blackmail people, and neither should you, it's very wrong. But she's the kind of person where nothing else would have worked. At least, nothing else I could see at the time anyways.

I knew how the game worked: You go after the nymph and RIGHT before you catch her, BAM! She's a tree. But I knew that strategy, as well as a counter to it.

She did exactly what I thought she would, and turned into a wisteria tree. Right as her transformation began, I twisted and headed for her friend. Being as quick as I am made it easy to close the distance. The nymph I didn't go after must have figured she'd be next because she transformed to stay out of the fight completely. The one I was going for then tried to do the same but there wasn't enough time. That's when the bait was hooked, in shock wisteria started to change back in order to help her friend. With amazing agility I turned around and took after her while she was still changing. I made a mistake though, I didn't realize how much less time it took to change to human form than tree form, as I was now I wouldn't make it. She'd just change back into a tree. I couldn't stop now though, if I could just surprise her somehow I could catch her. I willed my feet to move with all speed. I wanted to move so quick that I could chase down a cheetah if I had to. That's when it happened.

"Huh?" Said Wisteria. "What happened? Look guys he's stopped in mid air!"

Sure enough there I was, fully stopped in mid-air without a single movement at all… or so they thought. They watched as what they thought was me fizzled out of existence, while I placed my hand on Wisteria's shoulder. "My brand new special move. Lunalusion. Hehe… you lose Wisteria. I caught you."

Wisteria turned around fast to find me behind her. I'm not quite sure what I did but I guess I moved fast enough to create an illusion of myself. Whatever it was it left me dead tired, I was almost as weak as when I fired that special arrow at the Nemian lion. Whatever I did, it was definitely a one use move until I toughened up here at camp some more. Of course, I forced myself to breathe normally, I didn't want to look like I had gotten so tired just doing something as stupid as catching a nymph.

"All right, Wisteria. Since I win I'll be taking whatever you took from Brian. In return we'll keep this just between-"

"NOOOOOO! This can't be happening!" she screamed loud enough for half the camp to hear. The shriek was deafening.

"Whoa, what's wrong?"

"You! Don't you know what the 'reward' is for catching a nymph?!"

I'll admit I didn't. But then again, nobody did. Nobody had ever done it!

"Ughy… the prize is… my core."

"You're core?"

"It's like this. Nymphs are essentially the same as monsters. If we die, we don't do what humans do and have our souls go to rest in the underworld, as we don't have a soul like a human would. Instead we just get reincarnated. But even among monsters, nymphs are unique. Even though we don't have a soul we do have something like it. It's called a core."

"Normally we nymphs can't move but so far from our tree or pond or whatever it is we're a part of. But if someone else removes our core, we can go wherever they go. It's almost like freedom."

"Wait, if it's like freedom then, what's the problem?"

"The problem is our cores are our lifeforce. If you destroy it you'll kill us… permanently. And since we can't carry it ourselves, we're at the mercy of whoever takes it…"

I gave her a sad look. I had always felt bad for nymphs, they're always tied down in one place, never able to explore the world and find out what it's really like. Now to know that the only way for them to do that is to put their entire lives in someone else's hand on makes me pity them more. It sounds like a pretty unfair existence to me. Maybe that's why they seem so happy all the time, they can't afford to think about their depressing position.

"Well, if it bothers you that much, I just won't take it then."

She looked away with tear filled eyes. Closing them and stifling her soft sob she whispered "I wish…" I opened my mouth to ask her why I couldn't do that but stopped when I began to hear loud cracking and popping noises.

"Wha-" I said.

I looked over at Wisterias tree. The beautiful lush pink and purple leaves began to curl inward and turn a filthy black. The branches began to contract in on themselves, crunching and snapping leaving rips in the wood as it turned the same grotesque shade of black as the leaves. The once beautiful Westeria now withered and dead, began to glow a light pink color at its center. The ball of light grew smaller and more compact. With a small tinkling sound it almost seemed to be plucked off the tree, like a fruit, and began to float slowly towards me, stopping mere inches from my chest, before being absorbed into my body.

I felt a soft warm feeling rush through me. Like I could feel spring itself sliding up and down my spine. But that was soon replaced by a sense of dread and fear of the unknown. _This is… this is what Westeria is feeling!_

"The process… is automatic. We have no control over it." She said. Just then I heard another loud popping sound come from her tree. I turned my head to look again, only to see the tree slowly but surely, turn into dust and blow away in the wind.

She didn't show it, but I could feel it in her heart. Her sadness… seemed to go on endlessly.


	9. Poodles and Moonbeams

We stood in silence, no one saying a word. What could we say? What could _I_ say? I felt horrible. Because of my own ego I had stolen her future and sealed her fate in stone. She was now cursed, cursed to forever stay by my side whether she wanted to or not. This wasn't the life she wanted; this wasn't the path she chose. It was a path I carved out for her against her will when I did not have the right to do so. I had taken her entire world and life away from her and left her with an unpredictable future, and there was no way to undo the damage.

"Wisteria I-"

"It's fine." She said, cutting me off quickly. On the outside she seemed to return back to her normal bossy, rude self. But on the inside she was hurting deeply, I could feel it. "There's nothing I can do about it so I'll just have to deal. But get this! Don't you dare think that you can make me do whatever you want just because you have my core! I'd rather die than listen to you!"

She talked a big game but I could feel her panic. She didn't want to die and was terrified she might have just said something that might cause just that. I didn't want her to feel this way, so I tried my best to reassure her. "Wisteria…" Her feelings formed a knot in my gut. She was paralyzed by fear. "I'm sorry. This wasn't what you wanted out of your life. But since I made this mistake I'll take the responsibility that comes with it. I'll try to atone for this by making you as happy as I can. Tell me anywhere you want to go or anything you want to do. If I can I'll make it happen. I'm sorry."

That surprised her a bit but she just shrugged it off. "Well of course you will, loser!" she said. Of course she couldn't fool me. I knew how she felt on the inside, and it was nice. Her feelings were all jumbled up, but they weren't bad. It almost made me want to break down and cry tears of joy.

"Well that's good and all but… can I have what you took back?" said Brian. I had almost forgotten he was the reason we were even here to begin with.

"Right." said Wisteria. "Fine, I'll give him his card back." Wisteria walked over to Brian and handed him a small playing card. It was blue on the back with a big Fleur de Lis in the middle. The front of the card though was completely blank.

"What's that?"

"It's called a luckless card. It's an enchanted card that gives the holder bad luck. It's the reason I'm so unlucky all the time."

"Wait, this card gives you BAD luck?"

"Yeah." We all just kind of stared at Brian. Lucky trinkets make perfect sense, but UNlucky trinkets? That was a new one.

"But why?" I said. "Why would you carry something like that around?"

"All the children of Tyche carry a luckless card. If we didn't we'd cause a lot of trouble at camp. With our luck constantly switching from good to bad miracles and disasters would happen all the time, but we can't be given good luck cards or else the entire camp would get mad every time we found a drachma lying around. So mom gives us these Luckless cards to keep our luck in check. If she had found out I had mine stolen, I'd be on trial in the underworld right now!"

"I know that the other children of Tyche can have some bad luck now and then," said one of the nymphs. "But how come your luck is so much worse?"

"That's because the others ignore mom and leave their cards at the cabin pretty often. I don't though, mainly because I want to reap the benefits in case I really need it."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well mom wouldn't force us to put up with this without there being some kind of reward. So the whole time we use this card, all of our good luck gets stored up. Then if we need to fight, or gamble, or anything else, we can channel that luck into different things. If you're gambling you put it into the deck that's being dealt and your hands. If you're fighting you put it into your weapon. See what I'm saying?"

"But how do you know how much luck you've stored?"

Brian pulled at his belt and removed the hard metal case holding his cards. He held it out for us to see. It was a light purple color and reminded me of a box of crayons. On the front were four horizontal bars like gauges. Three of them were a deep, neon purple and the last one was pink.

"These bars here fill up with different colors depending on how much you've stored. The lowest is red, then yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet, and finally pink. Each bar fills up with one color before the next bar starts. Then if all the bars get the same color, the one at the bottom starts to fill up with the next color after that, until it's completely filled."

"Oh! I get it!" said Wisteria. "You've just been powering, saving your luck for when you actually need it! I'm sorry Brian, I guess I was wrong about you. You're not a hopeless idiot after all."

Brian gave out a soft chuckle. I have to say I was surprised. To think that Brian was actually just building up his power all this time, who would've thought?

"Lucky Bad Luck Brian! I can't wait to see him in action one day." I said and we all laughed. The name and thought just seemed so silly.

What happened next though, was anything but silly. In fact, I'll remember it forever.

I looked up at the hill out of habit while the others were laughing, and there, standing tall over the sickly tree, was the biggest poodle I had ever seen in my entire life. Three huge, slobbering jaws dripped drool all over the ground. It was twice as tall as the cabins with fur black as night with gray fluffy ears.

"C-Cerberus…" I whispered mostly out of shock than fear. "is a poodle?"

They looked towards the hill and gasped. The nymphs, including Wisteria, tried to take off running. The others made it but Wisteria only made it to the edge of the forest before she fell to the ground. I felt her sadness as she realized her mistake and guilt started to fill me.

We watched as Cerberus violently rammed the barrier, slashing at it with its claws, crunching at it with its teeth. I knew I was thinking the same thing as everyone else: The tree that maintained the barrier was still sick. We were still waiting for Clarisse to get back with the Golden Fleece. And she was still several hours away. If Cerberus kept slashing at the barrier like that, he'd bring it down and destroy the tree in the process.

Without thinking I took off running up the hill. It was late into the afternoon now and the sky was quickly going dark, by the time I reached him the sun had completely set. Although there was a full moon out tonight, there was still a waning gibbous, which was more than enough power to beat the hell out of it.

As I ran I could feel a slight tug on my back. Looking over my shoulder I saw Wisteria half-heartedly trying to keep up with me. She didn't want to go and I couldn't blame her. I was glad she was at least kind enough not to try and hinder my progress.

Taking out my bow, I fired a volley of arrows at its right head. But the middle head saw me and stopped the arrows with its teeth. Raising its right paw, it swatted at me, barely giving me the chance to jump out of the way. As I knocked another arrow I felt hot air pressing against my back. Instinctually I ducked down, and just in time as the third head came and bit the quiver right off of my back, swallowing it whole as I fell to the ground.

My situation was grim. I was now directly in front of all three of Cerberus's heads, and without a weapon. I was really starting to wish I hadn't left the trident back in the armory. Cerberus roared in my face, long strands of slobber suddenly soaring all around me. His nasty hot dog breath like a hurricane in my face.

He began to lean closer and closer I tried to get up and move but was pinned by one of his paws. Looking up I knew what was coming. I cursed myself for rushing in so suddenly. I got carried away with all the fights I had been winning that I forgot about how weak my chasing Wisteria had made me. It probably didn't help they had made me cocky too; I don't think it even occurred to me that I _could_ lose.

Cerberus reared back his heads, jaws wide open. This was it. It was all over for Arc Hunter. I gave my mother a small prayer, apologizing for failing her, and not being able to last long enough to be properly claimed. Closing my eyes I smiled, ready to meet death as a friend, as Cerberus's jaws clamped around me.

I opened my eyes but everything was dark. It was hot and humid and smelled like dead fish. That's when I realized this painful pressure on my chest. I looked down, and laughed. Cerberus's teeth couldn't hurt me. I had completely forgotten about the Nemian Lion's coat! _Sorry about that mom, I guess I screwed up there! _

Just then I saw an object fly out of the corner of my eye and slam into Cerberus's head in a flash of yellow light. The blast was strong enough to stagger him, forcing him to lift his leg off of me. I looked up at the moon and raised my hand to draw power from it. It wasn't nearly as quick or easy as the last time, but I didn't need much, just enough to get me out of its way.

"Are you okay?" I looked behind me to see my savior.

It was Bad Luck Brian.

He had opened his deck of cards and thrown one at Cerberus to save me. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes I never would have believed it.

"I don't think they did, but I saw it. You were out of breath after chasing Wisteria, weren't you? I take it you're still not in good shape?" I nodded my head. I wasn't about to lie to my best friend, especially not after saving me like that. "Here take this." He handed me a bronze hunting knife. "I picked it up from the armory, it's not much but it's the best I could do. Sorry."

"It's fine." I flipped the knife around in my hand. It felt so casual, so natural. "To be honest I think you grabbed one of the best weapons you could possibly give me." He let out a little chuckle. Guess that was exactly what he needed to hear.

"Hey Arc," Said Wisteria. I had almost forgotten about her amidst the chaos. "Can you be a little more careful? If you die, I die too, you know…" Her sadness was overwhelming.

"Wisteria… I'm… I'm sorry. Really I am." Her heart lightened a little. "This is all because of me. Because of me you can't get your tree back, can't have the life you used to know. I took away any chance you had at choosing your own path."

Then I got a feeling I wasn't expecting. Sure, she was still sad, but there was also this sense of peace. Not quite happy but, more content. She looked at me with solemn eyes. "Don't be so upset with yourself. You didn't know. In a way it's us nymphs fault for keeping it a secret. We've been so afraid that one day we'd get caught by someone who would treat us like a slave, that we kept it quiet so those kinds of guys wouldn't come after us. But that just led the way for people like you to end up doing it by accident."

"People like me?" She looked away for a few seconds before responding to my question. "Yeah like you." She turned and my mouth dropped. A single tear drop rolled down her face, but her mouth was upright in one of the brightest smiles I'd ever seen in my life. She held right her hand to her face to keep her red hair from flying into her eyes while her left hand was gently held back the bottom of her sleeveless gray dress as it flowed in the sudden nightly breeze. The tear that slipped down her cheek reflected the light of the moon so that a diamond seemed to fall from her eye.

In that one moment, all I could think was how beautiful she looked.

"Sorry to interrupt your moment guys, but we should head back. That attack made him dizzy but it won't last much longer!"

I snapped out of it. I had forgotten the giant three headed dog that was attacking our camp. I turned and shook my head. "We can't do that. Cerberus has already dealt a lot of damage to the barrier. If we don't stop him now, the entire camp will get flooded with monsters and everything Percy, Clarisse and the others have done will be for nothing. He have to stop him now, or at least stall for time. Can you use another one of those things?"

"Yeah."

"What about you Wisteria? Can you fight?" For the first time I felt something other than sorrow. Anger flared up inside of her like a flame.

"Can I _fight_? Can. I. Fight? Why of course I can fight! What do you take me for, some pathetic damsel in distress that can't do anything by herself?! I'll show you what I can do!" Wisteria snapped her fingers and a large bronze shield appeared in her left hand. It wasn't quite as huge as the ones he'd been taught to use, but it was plenty big enough to protect her and maybe one other as well.

I didn't complain because just then we learned that Cerberus had more tricks than just big teeth and claws. Grabbing my coat collar and pulling me behind her, Wisteria raised her shield as she blocked a fireball that had been launched from one of Cerberus's three heads.

"W-what the hell?! What kind of dog breathes fire?!" screamed Brian. Luckily he was far enough away from us that he hadn't been in danger of the attack.

"The kind that's spent its whole life amongst the fires of hell." I replied. "But that doesn't change things. Brian you said you could shoot more of those things right?"

"I'm not lying I really can."

"I don't doubt you I was just making sure. Try throwing some at his tail. Wisteria you protect him with your shield. I have an idea!"

Just like I asked he threw another card at his tail causing Cerberus to stand on his hind legs. _Just like I wanted!_ I dashed over to the pained Cerberus and grabbed onto his tail. As he slammed back down the tail went up into the air bringing me with it. I watched the angle I was at and jumped at just the right time to land on his back. Cerberus had three heads, but dogs can't reach certain areas of their backs very well. So long as I stayed crouched in his fur in just the right spot, he couldn't get me. Thanks animal loving dad number five. As I lay hunched in Cerberus's fur I drew the knife.

Climbing my way up his back I struggled to hang on as Cerberus took blast after blast to the face of Brian's magic cards. Eventually one of Brian's cards hit the middle head under the chin, knocking it up in the air. This was my chance! I jumped as hard as I could and managed to grab the fur at the base of his right ear. Leaning over so that I could see into it I put the knife in my mouth and blew as hard as I could.

Cerberus reared back, howling in pain. The knife Brian had brought me wasn't just any old knife. It had a built in dog whistle that was supposed to let you call the hunting dogs back after a long day of well… hunting. One little dog with two small ears world be driven mad by this thing. A super dog like Cerberus didn't stand a chance.

I continued to blow the whistle as hard as I could until eventually Cerberus calmed down and passed out. Either the whistle was too much for him or he was too exhausted to continue, nevertheless though I had the feeling Hades was going to get… well… hell for this. I slid off of the unconscious super mutt as I watched it change into a sleeping Chihuahua. If it hadn't just tried to kill me I would have thought he was kind of cute.

I fell to my knees exhausted as Brian and Wisteria came running up to me. "Whoa! Arc you did it again! You beat Cerberus!" he said.

I shook my head and put my hand on his and Wisteria's shoulders.

"No Brian, WE beat Cerberus!" It took a bit for it to click in his head before he realized I was right. Even with the Lions coat Cerberus could have easily eaten me and the coat wouldn't have saved me in its stomach. Plus the only reason I even won was because of the knife he brought me and the distraction he caused. There was NO way I could've done it without him.

Out of one of his pockets he pulled a few bits of ambrosia he had been saving and handed me some. He offered a bit to Wisteria as well, but she said that her source of power now was me. So long as I was in good health, she would be too. As we sat down and nibbled at our heavenly chocolate, we were greeted by not only the entire camp, but the hunters of mom as well. But of course, the first to reach us was Miss Crazy herself. Zoe Nightshade. "Wh-what the hell do you think you're doing?!"

I looked at Brian confused. Earlier he had said that the huntresses had left, but they were clearly right here in camp. He looked just as confused as I did as he just shrugged his shoulders. I turned my head back to her and said "Uh… saving the camp?"

Evidently that was not the right choice of words because she suddenly got red in the face, and I don't mean the lovey dovey blushing kind. "If Cerberus breaks free of the underworld it is the job of the hunters to take him down! Not yours and not this camp's!"

"Well I hate to break it to you Zoe, but somebody punched in at your timeslot!" Brian, the camp, and I all laughed. However that only made Zoe and the other Hunters even angrier. Finally she snapped and pulled out a dagger from her belt. I quickly got to my feet to block her, but stopped.

"Zoe Nightshade, how dare you pull a knife on your brother?"

There she was once again. My mother. "L-Lady Artemis?" said Zoe. "Lady Artemis, w-what do you mean our _brother?!_"

"There is something I must tell you." Mom said. She gestured to the entire crowd of people. "All of you." She looked back to me, a gentle smile on her face. "Arc, stand up." Of course I did as she said and got up to stand at her side.

"This boy's name is Arc Hunter. He has been at camp for less than two weeks, and has already defeated Mormo, the Nemian Lion, and the guardian of the underworld Cerberus. These are feats thought to only be accomplishable by a child of the so called 'Big Three'. But he is no such child! He belongs to not a single one of those nearly empty cabins! No, he belongs to another cabin entirely. Today, in honor of his feats, I announce his true identity! A title he has earned the right to sing to the heavens and reverberate in Olympus itself! He's Achilles Drakonian Hunter, Son of Artemis!"

Mother snapped her fingers and the moon suddenly shown full. A beam of white light appeared around me and my clothes began to change. White spectral wolves soared about me latching on to the different parts of my body as they formed a long white trench coat, cuirass, and greaves. Two of the wolves bashed their heads together forming the bow I had held that night in my hands, only it was more solid and slightly smaller than before. Another of the wolves formed a quiver on my back and a hundred more flew into it to form the arrows. Every part of me was covered in the white and silver of the moon. As the last two wolves came to rest at my sides as daggers, the light surrounding me became concentrated above my head where it formed a silver crescent moon.

The crowd in front of us stood in stunned silence. I guess no one had expected me to be the son of Artemis, the maiden Goddess. Chiron was the first, and only, to break the silence. "All hail the first son of the moon and prince of the hunt, Arc Hunter."


	10. Into the Lions Den

Have you ever tried sleeping in a room with bloodthirsty monsters ready to gouge out your least important innards so they can eat them in front of you as you slowly bleed to death? If you multiply that by about ten times then you might come close to understanding what it's like to sleep in a room filled with VERY pissed off huntresses.

Let me rewind a little bit. The rest of that night proceeded rather normally after the battle with Cerberus. If you call an entire camp full of kids who are usually running around raving mad due to their ADHD being completely silent for the rest of the night normal.

After the entire camp gave me the most delayed bow of all time, Chiron said that the rest of the camp would go to the mess hall while Artemis, the hunters, and I delivered Cerberus back to the Underworld. As daunting a task as that may sound it was actually fairly simple. Apparently there's a magical squeaky toy that opens portals for Cerberus straight to the Underworld. All you do is say an incantation, throw the toy and Cerberus takes care of the rest himself. After the portal closes the toy pops right back into mom's hands the second Cerberus has been successfully detained by the furies.

After that mother said to go to the mess hall, the girls didn't say a word, just nodded their heads as they did what they were told. When we arrived everyone was quiet and looking in our direction. I guess they all wanted to see me. I tried adding a little bit of normalcy to the mood by waving to people I knew, but the only one who waved back to me was Brian.

As I sat down I got dirty looks from the huntresses, again. Chiron said a few words and Dionysus said that he was so glad it was finally quiet and all of us useless demigods had finally found something that could shut us up. Of course, no amount of shock could hold back the camps need to disobey everything Mr. D said, and so the entire camp was back to being rowdy and crazy in a matter of minutes.

I ate my food silently and awkwardly with Wisteria at my side. On occasion I'd steal a glance to my right and look at the rest of the huntresses. Of course they either pretended I didn't exist or glared at me.

Zoe Nightshade was the worst of them all though. She never even bothered to eat. She just sat across from me with an empty plate, staring, with her hands folded under her chin. I tried to concentrate on eating my food. I always loved eating at the mess hall. Everything that went in my mouth was some form of my mom's cooking. It was nice, and helped me forget about the awkwardness of my situation.

But it all came to an end in a flash, literally.

A blast of bright white light enveloped the entire mess hall. I covered my ears as a sound like thunder strong enough to shake the marble pillars, smashed into me. After my eyes had time to adjust and my ears managed to stop ringing, I got up from the ground and looked around with my daggers drawn, expecting to see some kind of enemy.

What I saw though stopped me in my tracks.

He was definitely an enemy, but he wasn't one I could take. Hell, there wasn't anyone in the world crazy enough to take him on. And he was pissed. Why? Because I existed, of course. You didn't have to be a genius to figure that out.

I was outclassed.

Way outclassed.

I could defeat Mormo.

I could beat the Nemian Lion.

I even made the guardian of the underworld, Cerberus, fall in battle.

But this time, it was game over.

There was no way I could win a fight against the king of the gods.

Against Zeus.

He wasn't the biggest man I had ever seen, though he was above average. He stood with perfect posture, wind whipping around him and occasional sparks and jolts of lightning zipping across his body. His clothes weren't very remarkable, just an airplane pilot's uniform. He seemed to be about forty years old, with white hair and a rough, but well maintained appearance.

"Are you the son of Artemis? Achilles Hunter?"

I nodded my head slowly.

"I see." And a lightning bolt appeared in his hand. He raised it overhead ready to throw at me.

"Stop!" My mother called and appeared before me in the blink of an eye. "If you want to hurt him Zeus, you have to get through me." That only enraged Zeus more as his eyes, glowing white, shined brighter and the sky began to ripple with thunder and lightning.

"Artemis! You swore upon the river styx thousands of years ago to never, NEVER, give yourself over to a man. While I can excuse children of Athena given the circumstances of their birth, you I shall not tolerate! I will make an example of this boy, and assure you never break that oath again! Stand aside, or I WILL move you!"

"You can't do this! Zeus please, have mercy! I'll never break the taboo again! He'll be the only one of his kind just… please don't do this to me! Let him live, he's the only son I'll ever have!"

"And your time with him is up! Now, STAND ASIDE!" And with one brisk movement he swept my mother to the side and threw the lightning bolt down at me.

But thankfully, I'm not a complete idiot. While he and my mother were arguing I was draining power from mom. At first it was just from the moon, but when I realized I wasn't getting enough fast enough, I had to figure something else out. So I thought hey, mom's the moon pretty much right? So maybe I can just take some of hers.

Best. Decision. Ever.

I was easily as strong as I was the night I fought the Nemian Lion. Only this time my body wasn't nearly as battered or broken. Getting out of the way of his lightning bolt was a cinch. But even so, I wasn't dumb enough to think I could outrun him or beat him in a fight. Somehow I was going to have to talk my way out of this… and I think I may have thought of the perfect way.

First, I turned my head to Brian and mouthed _give me some luck_. He nodded his head and pulled out a card that he held in his hand. He put it to his forehead and closed his eyes. Suddenly everything felt like it was going my way. I KNEW I could get myself out of this mess and the key to it was…

"Lord Zeus, I mean you no offense by avoiding your most justified death sentence," I didn't really understand what I was saying. I just knew it was the right thing to say. I had a feeling it was Brian's doing. The normal me would have said something more like _Hey big guy, sorry for not wanting to get blown up and all._

"But I feel that it is necessary, for your protection." I knew I had just chosen some choice words, as that just made him angrier. But I knew it would work out. Luck was on my side after all. At least I hoped it was.

"MY protection?! Protection from what, boy? Certainly not your mother, if that's what you're implying."

"Of course not sir, I don't mean her at all."

"Then what?"

"Sorrow sir. As the king of the gods I'm sure you know that Clarisse is on her way here now with the golden fleece to purify the tree that protects this camp. The golden fleece is a powerful ancient artifact, that removes any impurities from nature. So if we place it on the tree, the tree is sure to be revived. However…"

"However what?"

"If the Fleece removes any impurities in nature, then that means that anything that's not natural will be expelled… like for instance… a trapped soul." That got his attention. My mother had told me the story of Thalia, how she and Percy were children like me who shouldn't exist. I knew that Thalia would be my trump card. Zeus wouldn't be able to handle being seen as a bad man in the eyes of his daughter.

I watched as the ethereal glow of his eyes lessened in intensity and the flashing, booming dark sky above the camp began to settle and the wind began to calm. The lightning bolt he had been holding, once all but solid, now flickered as though it were about to be dismissed.

"What are you trying to say?"

"I know the truth, Lord Zeus. Or at least some of it. Mother had told me the story of your daughter, of Thalia. Sir, I know little about Thalia, and I'm not trying to claim to know or understand anything about her. However I do know that like me, she wasn't supposed to exist. I also know that I myself would not feel very well if my mother were to punish her for the very same reason that I myself exist. Now I can't speak for her, but I believe from what I have heard that she would probably feel the same way. I also believe it's very possible that, with the arrival of the golden fleece, she may just be expelled from the tree, able to live again and I'm sure she that the first news she wouldn't want the first news she hears of her father being him killing a boy like her."

Zeus stared at me long and hard, but I was confident in what I said. I truly did believe Thalia was going to come back tomorrow when we placed the fleece on the tree and that certainly she'd want to hear of all the great things her father had done, not the revenge he had taken on me and my mother.

"Fine. If tomorrow my daughter does emerge from the tree, I will not issue the death penalty. " He turned his head towards my mother. "Once the dinner here is done, I'll be waiting to talk to you on Olympus, Artemis. But for now, I'll take my leave." My mother fell to her knees and breathed a sigh of relief. The shocked faces of the huntresses told me they had never seen this side of her before. I guess they never imagined my mother swallowing her pride like this. Especially not for a MALE son.

As quickly as he came the god of the sky was gone in yet another flash of light. I stood up, brushing my white armor and cloak off, and walked over to my mother. Putting my hand to her face I wiped away her tears before standing up and turning away from her. I closed my eyes, folded my arms and said "The great and powerful goddess of the moon and hunt, shedding tears for a taboo male son? What is this world coming too? Come on and pull yourself together, you're embarrassing your huntresses… mother." I turned back to her with a big smile on my face. Right now I needed my overly confident, pride filled mother. Not the weak fragile one who seemed to break at any moment.

She dried her tears, cleared her throat and got her game face back on. After getting up and pretending nothing had happened she looked at me and said, "Achilles, why is this nymph disrespecting my table?"

To my disbelief the whole camp started laughing. I guess my mother's sudden change in attitude completely took away from the tense atmosphere. Of course… I still had to answer my mother's question. "Well mom, you see, I uh… I guess you could say she… uh…"

"We played a game of catch the nymph and he won."

More laughter, this time from the huntresses as well. "Oh this is just TOO GOOD to be true! He's some perverted nymph chaser! Hahaha!" My mother's face was red, whether it was in anger or embarrassment though I couldn't tell. I could feel Wisteria's heart sinking. Obviously she had meant to say more but didn't know how. She was in pain yet everybody was laughing at the thing causing her so much anguish, like it was still just some game to them.

It didn't help with Zoe's continued onslaught. "So tell us, oh MASTERFUL NYMPH CATCHER, as the first mortal to ever accomplish this, what is the great prize you received? A servant for a day? Special bedroom favors? A photo album for your daily, and lonely, needs?"

I saw a single tear roll down Wisteria's face, between that and her emotions rolling around inside of me my anger against Zoe exploded. I took the daggers that were still in my hands and lunged at her. She didn't even see me coming. I was still supercharged with moon energy. As I was now, Zoe didn't have a prayer. "Zoe Nightshade. I will say this once, and only once. Do NOT mess with me. I'm not your enemy. But if you make me your enemy then so be it. But it won't be pretty. I will tear you down! I will destroy you! Don't think for even a second that I won't. That my mother will be able to stop me. You are crossing the line now! You're insulting not just me but Wisteria as well. You want to know what the "reward" is?! I'll tell you! It's her core! The equivalent to her soul! Oh, and the exchange is automatic, you can't stop it! The nymphs don't run from people for fun, they do it out of fear! The fear of being permanently forced and bound to another's will through no choice of their own! They're terrified! And for good reason! What may be a 'reward' for me is her WORST NIGHTMARE! I didn't know, and now I've torn her whole world away from her! She can never return to what she was! And it's MY fault! So shut up and stop joking around Zoe! Or I'll remove that tongue of yours and keep you from speaking ever again!"

I ended my fit of rage with large gasping breaths. Once again I stood in a silent and stunned room. I, personally, thought my outburst was justified, that the others in the room would start ragging on Zoe. So when no one said anything, I was surprised. I'd come to find out later that the camp saw me as a rather easy going, kind of pacifistic type of guy. I felt a little sorry for them as I was actually pretty prone to fits of anger from time to time. Of course I still appreciated the thought of their high opinions of me.

So the rest of the night proceeded rather casually. People ate and chatted (and for a few even sang) and for the most part things returned to normal. When I first came here that kind of quick-return-to-normalcy was a little hard for me to understand. Annabeth explained it though as being the pinnacle of normal here. She said that demigods live lives of constant fear. So any chance they had to be happy they tried to spend being happy. I wondered just how many creatures in the magic world live their lives that way.

Dinner came to an end and after instructing the huntresses to remain at camp for three days until a certain monster came near the camps barrier, my mother left. While they went straight to bed I decided to take a stroll around the camp before the final call for being indoors. I always felt better at night, and for once I wasn't alone. This time I had both Brian and Wisteria with me.

We walked in silence, enjoying the night air. Or at least I thought we were. For some reason I couldn't get comfortable, like there was this nagging feeling in the back of my mind. That's when I noticed a deep depression. One that wasn't mine.

"Wisteria, are you okay?" I asked. I was genuinely worried about her. Since this forced contract between us, we hadn't managed to have a single full discussion.

"Yeah… I'm fine."

"You don't FEEL fine."

She and Brian looked at me like I had just said this ice feels warm. That's when it finally occurred to me. Wisteria may be bound to me, but I'm not necessarily bound to her. Just because I can feel her emotions, doesn't mean that she could feel mine. Realizing that fact I knew I had to tell her. I certainly wouldn't want someone prying into my private emotions.

"I see, I guess it wasn't both ways like I assumed." More incredulous looks from them. I turned to face her. "Wisteria, I… I can feel your emotions. I think because your core is inside of me that I can- See? You just got really depressed. And now you're surprised, depressed, angry, want to kill m- oh. Okay I'll stop." Her feelings were like a constant roller coaster. Never settling, never stable. If all girls were this way, I think I might be the only male to understand them.

She started walking off in a bit of a hurry which surprised me a little, then she just stopped a few feet away and said. "Well that's no big deal. If you can feel what I'm feeling then that just means you won't be surprised by me hitting you whenever you piss me off. And I have a feeling that's gonna be a lot!" Even though she was putting on a big show by saying that, I knew that on the inside she was still really rattled by it. I guess she realized I was prying in on her emotions, because just like she promised she gave me a solid whack to the head, not that I probably didn't deserve it.

She closed her eyes and crossed her arms with a smug look on her face. "So Arc, where are we headed to anyways?"

I scratched my head. "Uh, I didn't really have a specific destination in mind." I laughed innocently.

"Why don't we head down to the armory?" Brian suggested, his finger pointing up in the air.

Wisteria and I gave Brian a weird look. "Uh, why would we do that?" I asked.

"Well I was thinking, the reason you probably had trouble with Cerberus was because you didn't have a close combat weapon. Take me for instance. I have my cards, which are a kind of mid range weapon. But I also have this bronze dagger I keep attached to my hip. Just in case they make it past my cards."

After watching Brian fight Cerberus I had a hard time picturing anything getting past his cards. But then again Cerberus bypassed my bow, so I guess anything is possible. Still he had a good point, and I knew just the weapon to get too.

As I grabbed the trident in the armory, Wisteria stood dumbfounded. Then fear ripped through her like a hurricane. I guess she had heard of its curse, but Brian and I assured her everything was alright. I had already won my first battle with it, so I was fine.

After that we spent a little time in the training pavilion, where Wisteria showed me how to use the trident properly. Apparently I was supposed to use it with a net or some such, but I wasn't a fan of that and when she realized I wasn't going to comply, she taught me different ways of wielding it that were more suited for me. I was surprised but she truly knew how to handle a shield. She was one of those rare people who could wield a shield as effectively as any sword or other weapon. She was completely balanced with it, both offensively and defensively.

Her physical abilities surprised me as well. Her body was nice, very attractive like all nymphs and dryads and such were, but her build seemed more like a housewife's than a warrior. She was thin, with wide hips and an equally wide bust and not a whole lot of muscle. And even though she wasn't the fastest person in the world, her punches and kicks were strong enough to leave cracks in the concrete ground.

After a good few minutes worth of training though, the warning bell rang letting us know that we had to be in our cabins in fifteen minutes, and an hour after that it was lights out.

"Damn, we're a pretty decent ways away from the cabins. I'll have to hurry, no time to chat!" yelled Brian and he took off down the field.

Wisteria looked at me confused. "We're less than a five minutes' walk away. We should be able to get there with time to spare. Why did he take off running?" I just laughed and pointed in the direction Brian took off to. Her eyes followed my finger and her hand flew to her mouth as she gasped and tried to stifle a laugh.

On his way there, Brian's bad luck was attracting all kinds of stuff keeping him from making any decent progress. He'd trip, his shoe would come off, a bird would grab a jar of greek fire and throw it in front of him. Terrible things like that one after the other. It was a relentless assault of bad luck sent by his mother Tyche.

I had grown used to seeing his mother's "love" for him by now, but Wisteria was thrown into a giggling fit. It was hard to imagine that just earlier today, the two of them were so cruel to each other. Then again, it was hard to believe the camp was the way it was at all.

When I first arrived here the atmosphere was static and dead. People walked around like quiet zombies. That's because Thalia's tree had been poisoned, weakening the barrier and making the camp more dangerous. The day after I arrived, a girl named Clarisse, a daughter of Ares apparently, went off to get the Golden Fleece. Everyone believes it's the only way to bring peace back to camp. To be honest though the camp seemed pretty peaceful to me, albeit a little moody, and it was certainly the first place I had ever been able to call home in a long, long time.

But now though I could see the camp livening up a bit. The other campers were more upbeat, happier than they had been the entire time I had known them. I watched as my home just kept getting better and better. It was like I moved into a mansion and now I had the money to trick it out anyway I wanted to.

Of course all this thought of home got me to thinking as well. "Wisteria, where are you going to sleep tonight?"

She gave me one of those sad looks. The one that says _I've thought about it but I wish I didn't have to._ "With you I guess. I can't turn back into a tree anymore. It makes me sad but there's nothing I can do about it. I'm… a part of you now. And DON'T read my emotions."

It was hard not too but I tried my best not to pry. Good thing to because it was starting to become a habit.

We started walking back to the circle of cabins. We passed Hestia and I waved to her. She politely nodded her head. I spent a pretty good deal of time hanging out with her. Enough to the point that I can talk to her about pretty much anything. If you didn't know she was a goddess, you'd probably think we were just old childhood friends. Although I can't say for sure, I'm almost certain that I'm closer to a goddess than anyone else has ever been before, or at least any other demigod like myself.

Out of habit I started turning to the left side of the field. Then I felt this ping of surprise run through me and I turned around. Wisteria was staring at me like she had no idea what I was doing. That's when it dawned on me. My mother had officially claimed me, meaning starting tonight I was staying in the Artemis cabin. My eyes got wide as I realized what that meant.

Wisteria and I had to sleep in the Lion's den…

We walked over to the cabin, my shoulders slumped and my face stuck with in a defeated look. For at least the next three days I had to sleep in room shared by two or three dozen girls. All of whom hated me to some varying degree. Head hung low as I sighed I managed to gather the courage to open the door after getting some encouragement from Wisteria. I peeked in to see what they were doing. From what I could tell all the girls were asleep. Deciding it was safe I put all my focus into my abilities as a hunter. I made my bed my target and decided the best course of action was to reach it silently. Using my powers as the son of Artemis I carefully tiptoed a few steps passed the door. But I made a grave miscalculation. I wasn't the only one coming inside to sleep. Wisteria was with me too. And while I had magical powers to help keep me silent, Wisteria was just as loud as she normally was, and ended up accidentally slamming the doors.

Before I could breathe an arrow whizzed pass my head and three dozen angry women had shot up from their beds, daggers drawn and lights on. Wisteria quickly covered my eyes but it was too late. It hadn't even occurred to me how the girls would sleep. Some wore their day clothes, others plain old pajamas, and while that wouldn't have been too bad, that was only the minority of them. Most of them wore only their underclothes, or worse, their birthday suits…

After thinking about it though it made perfect sense. When all they ever lived around was a bunch of girls, I guess it would only be reasonable for them to be that comfortable around each other. Decency didn't really matter when you were all the same gender.

Still though I was thankful of Wisteria covering my eyes, although I did see some things it wasn't much to brag about. My thanks was short lived as it quickly became a perilous situation. A cold tingling sensation flew down my spine as something sharp and cold touched the skin on my neck. "What. In. Hades. Do. You. Think. You're. Doing?!" It was Zoe Nightshade, and judging from how close the sound was I guessed she was right in front of me with a dagger to my neck.

"Well, uh you see… this is the Artemis cabin so uh…"

"Yes!" She screamed, pressing the blade tighter harder against my throat. "The ARTEMIS cabin! Tell me do you know the rules of this camp?! Only those who are the children of the respective gods and goddesses and who have the permission of said gods and goddesses are allowed to enter the cabins after dark! Everyone else goes to the Hermes cabin! So what are you doing here?! What?! What do you want?!"

I suddenly heard one of the other huntresses speaking to her. "Zoe, he's Artemis' son. He's no longer allowed in any of the other cabins past ten and he can't stay outside or else the harpy's will eat him. He doesn't have a choice. Honestly, I'm sure he knows by now that most, if not all, of us hate him. But he has nowhere else to go. You really think he wants to sleep in a room with a bunch of women who'd all like to slit his throat? C'mon, he's got it bad enough as it is. We can all just get dressed into something comfortable and it won't be an issue. Just leave him be Zoe."

"I don't know who you are," I said. "but thank you." Suddenly I was whacked in the head. "I'm not doing this for you, boy, I'm doing this because I'd rather not have blood everywhere. If that happened I'd have to be the one to clean it up!"

I knew it would end with the same result, but mom taught me to always be thankful of those who do me right, even if it's for other reasons. After all, it may be those very same people who save your life one day. "I know. I still want to thank you. Being thankful for help, regardless of who from or why, is something people should always be. Mom taught me that."

Another whack to the head. "Who do you think you are?" said Zoe. "I've been with Artemis for nearly three thousand years now, yet you try to speak like you know her?"

I gave it a little bit of thought. When you put it that way I guess it probably did seem like I didn't know my own mother very well. But to be honest, I was positive that I actually did know her better. "Well I don't really know. Tell me Zoe did mom ever cook for you?"

I felt the knife blade leave my throat as she stepped back. "No," she replied. "I've never seen Lady Artemis cook before. We always fixed our own meals while she ate nectar and ambrosia."

"Really?" I asked surprised. "In all the years my mother has known you she's never fixed you anything to eat? She's an amazing cook I don't know why she wouldn't."

The girls all looked at each other giddishly. Like the idea of my mother cooking was just too hilarious for them to stand.

"Lady Artemis is a proud hunter! She would never fix food for lowly mortals like ourselves."

"Okay one, don't you think that's really degrading yourself? And two, mom cooked for me all the time. In fact, she even took care of me when I was a child for two whole years."

Zoe dropped her dagger and punched me and for once I didn't know what I had said wrong. "So it's your fault?!" She screamed. Evidently I had struck a very sensitive nerve. "Several years ago my lady was acting most estranged! There were times when she was completely disinterested in hunting! Instead she seemed inclined to place her joys in such things as food and clothing, like she had suddenly become Aphrodite! She would often turn into this strange form where she had chesnut brown hair a green dress and a white cooking apron. Whenever she did that her attitude took a complete turn. And then after those two years she was depressed for quite some time. Constantly playing with a necklace she kept around her neck. Gazing at it like it was a lost child. That was all your fault?!"

Yup, I struck a nerve.

"Well what did you expect her to do?!" Everyone turned their heads to Wisteria. She had been keeping quiet this whole time, but now she seemed kind of angry. Wow, everyone's getting their nerves pressed today. "It was her first, and likely only, child Zoe! If you had one of your own I'm sure you'd feel the same way! You need to stop being so damned obsessed with the fact that Arc is one, a man, two, better than you, and three, Artemis's favorite, and just grow up already! You look ridiculous getting angry about every single little thing that he does! You don't like him? Stay away from him! Simple as that!" and with that Wisteria grabbed my hand and drug me across the room, still keeping one hand firmly over my eyes.

"Now I suggest you girls get dressed in something halfway decent. My arm is getting tired and I'm only going to keep my hand here for another five minutes. If you aren't dressed by then you'll be shamed by having your bodies seen by a MAN, and I say man because that's what he is. A MAN. He's not just some stupid, run of the mill perverted teenage boy. He's done plenty to earn peoples respect and you should all be giving it to him."

As nice as it was to have Wisteria defending me, I didn't really feel like I could agree with everything she was saying. I was certainly still a boy. I mean, I had only recently found a home, a place to belong. Now I had to do things like, search for who I really was, graduate highschool and get a job, buy the latest pocket monsters game with my own money. I was definitely still a kid. What's more I didn't really think what she was saying was making my situation any better.

Before I had a chance to protest what she said though, I heard the rustling sound of thirty girls all putting on their clothes. After five minutes of waiting Wisteria finally removed her hand and my mouth dropped to the ground in amazement. I had peeked into the room before, but without a proper light source I couldn't see much of anything. Now that Wisteria had finally moved her hand, I could finally get a clear view of the cabin built in my mothers honor.

The biggest things I noticed were our beds. We had wooden bunk beds shaped like deer stands. They had no mattresses, just the hard wooden planks, which I didn't mind. Animal pelts were draped under the top bunk so that they hung around the bottom like a curtain. They also served as our blankets, and if you found the wood uncomfortable, your matress.

The room had your typical hard wood floors, with boulders placed haphazardly around and tree trunks randomly going up to the black ceiling. Of course that's when I noticed the most amazing part of the room, the walls and ceiling. They were enchanted so that only those who belonged to the Artemis cabin could see it, otherwise the wall was just a plain deep blue with a few hunting trophies mounted on the walls. As a child of Artemis, I could see the walls constantly giving off the image of a forest somewhere with the ceiling showing the sky above it. It seemed so realistic that if you didn't put your hand on the wall to be sure of what you saw, you'd think it was bigger on the inside. Occasionally I'd see a deer running through the forest and whenever the animal reached the room, a white apparition like moonlight would appear in the room and mimic its movements, before reaching the walls and running away. And it wasn't just deer, but all animals and even some bugs too. Lighting up the room like dozens of pale white ghosts, only these ghosts weren't terrifying but calm and beautiful, as though they were spirits meant to help put our souls at ease.

Finally, there was our cabins centerpiece. Percy had told me about them before, how each cabin had a fountain made for these things called iris messages. I had been in the occasional cabin, but I had yet to see a fountain as beautiful as ours. A white marble basin stood up from the ground, its sides curved with the shape of a small mountain range, glowing like the moon itself. Inside the basin was a pool of water that shone a brilliant blue like the waters of the Caribbean and reflecting the ceiling so that stars danced in the water. But what made it truly magnificent, was the large marble crescent moon as big as a full grown man that floated above the pool of water. Even though it was directly above the beautiful liquid, it showed absolutely no reflection. I could feel the energy of the moon flowing off of it like a waterfall. There was no doubt in my mind that this was an actual miniature moon my mother helped to maintain here in the cabin. At first I thought the fountain was pointless as it seemed to be something more like a giant bird bath than an actual fountain. But later I learned that if you hold up a drachma for an iris message, then ten waterspouts will shoot up into the air for you to throw into mist and send a message.

Wisteria had pushed me onto a bunk in the very back of the room, and then climbed up on top. The huntresses also clambered into their beds and within a few minutes it seemed like the only one left awake was me. Deciding it was better to sleep, I closed my eyes, and left to a world of dreams.


End file.
